Adventure
by Shax
Summary: Robotnik unleashes the greatest threat Mobius has ever known, and the fate of everything rests in the hands of seven. (read Prologue first)


ADVENTURE 

Series 2 - The Three Tests   
Episode 13   
The series finale and the coming of the third test 

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PLEASE NOTE: If you have not read "Prologue to an Adventure, this fic will make little sense. This story is not intended to mirror the Dreamcast game, many liberties have been taken and many changes incorperated. I feel a change is as good as a holiday :) 

I have brought many stories about Sonic the Hedgehog into writing;   
The greatest adventures ever embarked apon by one youth;   
But they are all meaningless child's-play compared to this adventure;   
The nightmarish and fateful events of the 1/12/99;   
The events which, summed up, can only be described as... 

ADVENTURE 

PROLOGUE: 

The echidna rushed past tree after tree after tree... the monster's roars behind him and the crashing of waves was almost deafening. The echidna stumbled and regained his composure. Such was the life of a page.. he was being used as a guinea pig once again. As bait for the creature sent by the gods to destroy them all. Suddenly, a figure rose up behind him.. his master. He was surrounded by other echidnas high in he ranks of the government.   
"Is he coming?" the lead echidna asked.   
"Yes.. my Lord.." the page panted. "Can he.. be stopped? He.. is a God.. after all.."   
"Yes, but this is a test." the lead echidna replied. "A test of our strength.. as a culture and as a race. We have chipped seven pieces from the Havoc Gem, emeralds which can absorb the creature's evil."   
Suddenly, a shadow swept over the congregation, and a massive roar was heard. A couple of the echidnas freaked out and tripped over themselves to get away, and others fell back. Only the lead echidna and six others remained.   
"XNAOO!" he screamed. "YOU HAVE DESTROYED THOUSANDS OF OUR PEOPLE! YOU HAVE OBLITERATED OUR BUILDINGS.. OUR CITIES.. IT IS TIME TO END YOUR REIGN OF HORROR!"   
There was another roar, and the seven echidnas threw their hands into the air. Each hand contained a bright jewel with a colour of its own. The roar amplified and became high pitched as the massive shadow was sucked into a strange vortex... lightning and thunder clapped until, eventually, the darkness was no more, and the jewels fell to the ground.   
"What... what shall become of him?" the page asked.   
"He is contained.." the lead echidna replied. "As long as the vortex is never re-opened, this hideous foul creature will never see the light of day again. Cast them into the ocean! They are the Xnaoo Emeralds, and we must make sure they are never again touched by skin of echidna.. or anything else." 

One hundred and fifty years later to the day: 

He walked through the forest. Leaves made a dry crunching sound under his feet. He was looking around with his radar, when something on his arm clicked. He checked it. It was a digital clock he installed to his arm. The time had clicked over, and was now reading 12:00 midnight, 1st December 1999. "A pinch and a punch for the first of the month." he growled to himself. He continued to check around with his radar. There was a large city to the west of him. "That must be Station Square." he muttered. His goal. After all, he knew where Sonic was headed the last time they met. Sally Acorn was too smart for her own good, and now she would be ready for him. He needed a new target.. somebody else that Sonic was attached to in some way. A new kidnap victim. Zero Tolerance turned his radar off, and headed west. Last time they had met, he was still young. Now the armored hedgehog was a little older, a little wiser, and thanks to all the wonderful machinary of Mobius, he was much better equipped. He was more like a robot now than he had ever been since he became alive. He didn't know what he was about to bring himself into. He had absolutely no idea that he was going to become entwined with the most fearsome and terryfying series of events that Mobius would see for a very, very long time. All he knew was revenge on Sonic the Hedgehog. He was also deeply offended by the robot Mecha Sonic, but that grudge would have to wait. Sonic was the one to knock him off the cliff that time. Sonic would have to pay first. 

Robotnik, Mecha Sonic, the E-102 series and a group of E-101 robots marched through the thick scrub with the seven Chaos Emeralds. Robotnik was very excited. He was about to unleash a monster apon the world.. a monster who was completely under his control. The echidna tablets and scrolls said so.. the grey emerald had even said so. "Sire.. we're here." Mecha stated. Robotnik looked up, and saw a temple. A very large temple. It resembled that of the Earthian Aztec or Mayan build.. it didn't seem echidna-like at all. Robotnik leaped towards it with heavy strides, and felt the smooth stone. It hardly had a trace of moss on it. Of particular notice was the association with snakes and eels and other legless squirming creatures that the temple had. The group moved up the stairs, and found a massive snake's head facing them. It was made of stone, like everything else, and had quartz crystal in the eye sockets. This temple was the most magnificent thing Robotnik had seen on the Chaos Isle, without a doubt. So perfectly sculpted... yet it transmitted a dire warning. It looked very dangerous indeed, and the snakes and eels were echidna symbols for danger and death. The Chaos Isle echidnas had constructed this temple for the Chaos Emeralds.. but they never, ever wanted it to be used. To do so would definately mean the destruction of their species.   
Ivo looked down and noticed two platforms.. one was silver plated, the other gold. "Do you have the statues?" he asked. Mecha handed him two statues.. one silver, the other gold. One was a statue of a coiled snake, the other was the head of a dragon. Funny, echidnas never even mentioned dragons in their myths before. Robotnik placed the statues on the corresponding coloured platforms, and waited. A low rumbling suddenly began. Epsilon, Beta, Delta and Zeta cautiously loaded their weapons, and Gamma slowly did the same. Everyone backed away as the snake's head began to open. Robotnik and Mecha stepped into the darkness, while the other robots waited outside.   
Mecha had Chaos' commands stored in his database, so he acted as navigator. Robotnik walked behind him, carrying the emeralds. Eventually, they came to a doorway. It was blocked by a large stone door. Robotnik enthusiastically pressed the keystone, and the door screeched open. It was so dark inside that only Mecha could detect what was inside with his scanners.. and he assured Robotnik that it was magnificent. Robotnik looked to the corner of the room, and could just make out a large object. He touched it. Smooth.. it was glass. He could just make out his own face in it. It was a mirror. He pushed it, trying to manuvour it. It budged, but it was difficult to move. Suddenly, the entire room lit up brightly. The light from the hallway bounced off the mirror onto another mirror, and through a series of mirrors throughout the room. Ingenius. But that wasn't what Robotnik was focused on. He was looking at a massive construction, six stone containers and a large platform, surrounded by runes. Each container was large enough to house a Chaos Emerald, and the platform above, according to Chaos' instructions, would be for the controller.. the grey emerald. Rushedly, Robotnik went around the machine, stretching out to place an emerald on each pedestal. The containers closed around them with a satisfied click. Robotnik then climbed the construction to place the grey emerald in the center, but as soon as it hit the pedestal, there was an explosion that threw him to the ground. Mecha ran up to him. "Sire, are you hurt?" he asked.   
Robotnik grunted. "No, I'm alright. Switch the machine on."   
Mecha was about to comply, but stopped.. the machine was ALREADY on. The pedestals with the emerald containers rotated and danced hypnotically around the center. Then they rose with a screech. Robotnik and Mecha jerked back a little. The containers rotated faster and faster, and the grey emerald was glowing steadily. Suddenly, the containers turned and shot six different coloured beams of light at the controller emerald in the center. Colours matching the colours of the emeralds inside them. The pedestal with the grey emerald began to raise into the air, the beams of light following it. The room was almost intolerably bright, now, and the machine was spinning faster and faster. Robotnik could see murals all over the walls.. stone murals. They were of giant eels and tidal waves swallowing the echidna cities, and one in particular, the largest one, depicted a gigantic, monsterous dragon roaring as it looked down at the ruins of its enemies. Robotnik's eyes had stars in them. While he stared, he suddenly heard the monsterous sound of the creature's roar. No, it wasn't the mural... it was a massive vortex, which appeared over the grey Chaos Emerald, which was hovering above the pedestal, spinning. Mecha put his arm out to shield his master, but Robotnik pushed it away. He walked right up and stood under the vortex. Raising his arms, he screamed "COME FORTH CHAOS!! YOUR MASTER COMMANDS YOU!!" He began to laugh maniacally, staring into the void. He laughed and laughed.. but this particularly evil moment was spoiled when nothing happened. Robotnik's laughter died down, he lowered his arms and stared into the portal. "Chaos!" he shouted. "Are you there?"   
He was answered by a drop of water on his forehead.   
Stepping back, he looked at the Chaos Emerald vortex from a distance. What had gone wrong? He had done exactly what Chaos told him, so why was his monster not there?   
"Scanners detect no signs of the monster, sire." Mecha reported glumly, as three more, larger drops of water from the vortex turned into a small stream, as if from a tap.   
"What have we done wrong?" Robotnik demanded. "I can't believe this!" He began to pace around the room, every so often glancing at the leaky vortex. His black boots slopped on the wet floor. "I ask for a monster, and what do I get? WET!" Neither Robotnik, nor the robot noticed that the water was rising off the floor... rising into a shape. The liquid had stopped dripping from the vortex, and was now struggling and squirming around.. like the water was alive. Mecha sensed movement, and turned to face it. The water had risen into a shape about the size of a human, and was pulsating like a glob of oil underwater.   
"Sire..." Mecha started. Robotnik did not reply, but his attention was turned to the system of mirrors. He admired the engineering. The glob of liquid sprouted two limbs like arms on both sides of it. They formed claws on the end. The base of the blob lifted up in the middle to a crotch... two legs. What also seemed like limbs began to sprout from the top, which now resembled a head. A yellow tint began to darken on its 'face', and then sprouted into two, and rounded. The yellow bits blinked and looked around.   
"SIRE..." Mecha said, a little louder and more forceful. "Be quiet, Mecha!" came the reply.   
The glob of liquid appeared to solidify a little on the inside, forming a very simple bone structure. Even the bones bent and twisted when the liquid entity moved. A mouth with jagged fish-like teeth appeared, and the entity's ugly yellow eyes fixed on Mecha for a long time. The robot backed off a little, but in a very fluid motion, the blob-creature melted, slid across the floor, and reconstructed itself right before Mecha's eyes. It coiled around the robot a little, making Mecha feel a little threatened. "Ivo.. Robotnik.." the creature stated. Its voice was jerky, and sounded as if it had a mouth full of water, which, in a way, it did. "You are Ivo Robotnik?" it asked. "Chaos thanks you for his release..." "No." Mecha replied suddenly. "No, I am Mecha Sonic, Robotnik's assassin robot. My master is over there." He pointed to Robotnik, who was trying to take one of the mirrors apart.   
Without a second thought, the creature slithered to Robotnik, and slid its hand on the doctor's shoulder. Robotnik jumped at the unexpected cold touch, startled. He turned to face the creature, his mouth wide open. He cocked his head to the side.   
"Ivo... Robotnik....?" the creature asked, as if it was an infant's first words. Robotnik took a step back, and nodded. "Yes, I am Robotnik." he replied.   
"You.. are Chaos?"   
"YESSSSSSSSSSS..." the creature hissed gluggily, its eyes brightening slightly. "You have released Chaos, Ivo Robotnik... Chaos is FREE!" The creature seemed to constantly refer to itself in the third-person, showing it was anything but selfless. Robotnik approached the creature, Chaos, and poked him in the chest. It was difficult to enter at first, as if breaking a seal.. the creature had a very thin skin. Robotnik's finger broke through, and swooshed around inside Chaos.. it bumped a bone which felt and broke like toothpaste. Robotnik retracted his hand, and Chaos repaired immediately, never shifting his glance, never moving a muscle (so to speak). "Peh.." Robotnik snorted. He flailed his arms around and moved towards the exit. "Come, Mecha." he commanded.   
Chaos, with precision speed and accuracy, globulised, rushed through Robotnik's legs, and re-formed in front of him. "You are not happy with what you see?" he asked. "You should be.. Chaos is at your command!" Robotnik tried to push the liquid monster away, but his hand just went through Chaos' face. He pulled it out and brushed it off. "You are not a monster." he said coldly. He flung his arm at the huge mural at the side of the room, under the vortex which was slowly dying down as the machine began to stop. "THAT is a MONSTER!" the doctor screamed. "THAT is the Chaos I expected! A POWERFUL MONSTER WHO CAN LEVEL A CITY!!" He turned back to Chaos. "YOU.... I don't know WHAT you are!" he screeched. "But you are NOT a monster! _I_ am TALLER than you! _I_ would have an easier time levelling Station Square! AND LOOK! You aren't even SOLID! I could kill you with a VACUUM CLEANER!!"   
Chaos appeared startled at Robotnik's lashing out, but fluidly moved to Robotnik and put a limb around Robotnik's shoulders. A friendly gesture, despite the ominous and threatning appearance. "Chaos is still young..." the creature said. "Powerless. If you want THAT.." Chaos motioned to the mural "Then Chaos can provide, Chaos is under your command, Ivo Robotnik. But Chaos will need power. Chaos GROWS with power. Do you HAVE a power source, Ivo Robotnik? You will not be disappointed." Chaos looked Robotnik over, hungrily and greedily, to see if the doctor was packing any kind of high power source. Robotnik shook his head. "The Havoc Gem is nearby.." he commented.   
"NO!!" Chaos screeched, wavering. "Chaos was trapped inside just seven small pieces of that gem for one hundred and fifty years!! It is unsafe, it will not do."   
"Well what else is there?" Robotnik snapped back. "There is the MASTER Emerald, I suppose, it has less power, but it does not have the same containment properties as..."   
"Yess!" Chaos hissed. "The... MASTER Emerald! Feed Chaos the Master Emerald!"   
Robotnik looked at the mural on the side of the room. "And you will turn into that?" he asked. Chaos nodded, a visible grin on his jagged lips. A bubble formed in his stomach and went to his head. "Come, Ivo Robotnik, Chaos craves to see the sun. Let us exit this temple!" Chaos liquified into a puddle, and slithered away, under the wall. Robotnik turned to exit through the doorway, but Mecha Sonic stopped him. "I sense treachery in this creature." the robot said, keeping his voice down. "Perhaps you should not be so quick to provide it with what it wants."   
"A shrimp like that cannot assist me to dominate Station Square!" Robotnik stated. "I have no choice!"   
"Perhaps you should not give this 'Chaos' everything it wants straight away.." Mecha advised. "Give it small amounts.. see what happens. Keep it loyal." "You mean, take the Master Emerald apart and offer it as doggy treats when Chaos does a good job?" Robotnik asked. "That is an intelligent solution, Mecha, I shall have to reward you!" The doctor motioned for the robot to follow him, and they exited the temple.   
Once outside, they found that the five E-102 robots were holding Chaos at gunpoint. Chaos seemed un-stirred. "Epsilon! Beta! Gamma! Delta! Zeta!" Robotnik shouted. "Chaos is to be treated as your superior, and without suspicion! Put the weapons away!" The five robots obeyed. "Epsilon and Beta!" Robotnik commanded. "Take the two key statues and hide them somewhere around here. Gamma, Delta and Zeta, get the E-101s and return to the Egg Carrier!"   
vAs the robots and their master did their own things, Chaos remained in the jungle for a while.   
"Chvaos shall honor his creators." Chaos said to himself. "He shall show that he surely is the perfect organism.. the Perfect Chaos!" He chuckled to himself. "I must acheive perfection quickly. CHAOS... IS... BACK!!!" As his gluggy voice echoed through the canopy, he seeped through the ground, into the dirt. 

CHAPTER ONE - CHAOS ZERO 

Amidst the usually quiet streets of Station Square, a blue blur ripped through the air. Bouncing from the street, right up the side of buildings, across the top, and then from building to building like a pinball. Amy was holding a meeting of the Freedom Fighters in City Hall, and he had been asked to attend, as a representative of New Knothole. The Freedom Fighters were very different in Station Square.. their efforts consisted mainly of patrolling the city for attack. The was a rumour that Robotnik was looking to expand his empire, and Station Square was the nearest city to Robotropolis. Sonic passed a large building labelled 'Casino'. This must have been where Twinkle Park met Station Square.. the two close cities grew so much that they now touched. Twinkle Park was a huge combination of theme parks and casinos, mostly. The casino was open.. it was about seven o'clock at night. Sonic breifly wondered if he would have a chance to check it out after the meeting. He heard a sound behind him. Sirens? What was happening? He stood at the edge of the roof of the building he was on, and looked down. Five or six police cars, maybe more, were screeching along at at least 150km/h, and swerving all over the place as a result. Sirens blaring, they screeched around a corner, regained control, and continued driving out of sight. A police chase! "Oh yeah! THIS is happenin'!" Sonic announced excitedly. He blared across the city, trying to keep up with the cops. They were only doing around one-fifty, so it was easy to catch up. Wait.. they were travelling towards City Hall! Sonic began to worry about Amy and the Freedom Fighters. He stood atop a building, and tried to make out what was happening. The police cars screeched to a halt outside City Hall, and police practically busted out and rolled, heavy automatic weapons on the ready. This was interesting.. a hostage situation, maybe? The building did not give much of a view, Sonic couldn't make out the scene properly.. or what they were looking at. One of the police stood up with a megaphone. "PUT THE HOSTAGE DOWN!" he commanded. "PUT HER DOWN, AND COME OUT SLOWLY." 'HER'? Sonic hoped the hostage wasn't Amy. He also wondered why he was so worried about Amy.. she could take care of herself. There was a sound in reply. A roar? It couldn't have been. A couple of the police appeared scared, some were loading and re-loading their guns nervously. "Must not have very professional police in this town.." Sonic thought to himself. Suddenly, some action.. Something flew towards the police at a high speed. A person? What could throw a person like that? He checked to make sure it wasn't Amy. It wasn't.. it was a female wolf. She was screaming her head off, and appeared soaked. "GOOD, NOW COME OUT SLOWLY." the cheif of police commanded. There was a long silence, and then the police began to back away. "FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" one of them screamed. "NO! REMAIN!" another shouted. One of the police was grabbed by something long and shiny, and thrown into the bonnet of a police car. Sonic jerked his head up, heart pounding. What the hell was that? He didn't like getting in the way of police, but he had to find out what was happening. He ran down the side of the building, and hit the asphault. He was nearly kicked over by the crowd of people madly fleeing the scene. He couldn't see over them. He could hear the police cheif shouting commands, and the loading of guns. The cheif was giving the criminal one last chance to give himself up. Sonic eventually pushed through the crowd, and hit a striped police blockade. He had never been this close to an armed police seige! It was a lot different and more exciting than watching Freedom Fighters beat E-100s with large sticks. He looked beyond the blockade, searching the night. He could see City Hall.. the lights were on, but it was empty. Amy must have evacuated the meeting. Yes.. he could see her on the other side of the seige.. she and the other Station Square Freedom Fighters were watching just as curiously as he was. At least they appeared safe. Suddenly, there was a piercing scream beside him. He shot around and almost fell over. A policeman directly beside him had some kind of tentacle wrapped around him! He had dropped his heavy weapon, and now took his handgun out of its holster and was shooting it randomly. Sonic backed off in case he was shot by accident. "FALL BACK!" he could hear somebody screaming behind him. Somebody grabbed him and pulled him up and away. "Back away, civilian." somebody told him. He was taken behind the police and left.... he stared back into the darkness. What WAS it? Then he saw it. It was standing on top of a car outside City Hall. At first it looked human.. but it was short, stumpy, pulsating, and Sonic could see right through it. It looked like a transparent version of Nights. One of its limbs was wrapped like a tentacle around the cop's waist, and was waving him around. "PUT HIM DOWN, OR WE WILL FIRE." the police cheif ordered. In reply, the creature seemed to... was it... was it LAUGHING? It threw the policeman away, and then turned to a group of curious civilians. It stretched a tentacle towards them. They screamed and fell over themselves trying to get away. "CEASE AND DESIST!!!" the police cheif ordered. The creature ignored him. "OPEN FIRE, MEN!" the cheif commanded. Immediately, as if anxious to hear that command, the forty-or-so policemen let their automatic rifles rip, and the creature was hit by thousands of bullets a second. They made a plop sound and a slight splash apon contact, and the creature's body was violently distorted from the onslaught. The cheif gave the command, and the firing stopped. Sonic looked through the smoke to see if he could find the remains of the strange creature. He could see a sphere.. a light blue sphere, just sitting there, not moving. But stranger still, it began to morph.. it morphed slowly back into the human-like shape it originally was, and stood there for a few seconds. There was an uneasy silence. The creature extended one of its arms, opened its claw.. and dropped thousands of bullet shells into a pile on the ground.   
"OH NO!" one of the police shouted. "OUR.. OUR WEAPONS HAVE NO EFFECT! OUR WEAPONS ARE USELESS!"   
"FALL BACK, MEN!" the cheif commanded. Some of the police bolted, some screeched away in their cars. In five minutes, everybody was gone, one of the cars hitting a fire hydrant and causing a fountain in its haste. Sonic was alone with the creature, now, even Amy and the Freedom Fighters had escaped. The creature pulsated, and stared directly at Sonic for a long time. Sonic brought himself to his feet. "Who.. who are you?" he asked. There was a very long silence again, as the creature eyed him. "Chaos could.. ask you the same quesssstion." it hissed. A bubble formed in its chest, and slowly drifted upward. 

"Alright, hot-shot!" Sonic called out, gaining confidence. "Twenty questions! What are you doing here, and why did you attack those people?" The creature looked at him with a smug look. "What are YOU doing here... and why do you not run? Do you think you can stand up to Chaos? Chaos will CRUSH you!" "Is THAT your name?" Sonic asked. "Chaos?" The creature began to approach him. "It is.." it replied. "Chaos Zero, to be precise. What is your name, little bug?"   
Sonic frowned. "Sonic." he replied. "Sonic the HEDGEHOG. And I suggest you leave this city before I lose my temper!"   
Chaos thought that was extremely hilarious, and to prove his point, charged at Sonic. "WHOA!" Sonic shouted, dodging. Chaos bounced back with an incredible spin, his arms flailing around wildly. Sonic was hit by a speeding tentacle and flew back into the wall. Chaos chuckled insanely, and melted into the pavement. Sonic picked himself up, dazed, and looked around for the strange creature. Where did it go? He stepped in something wet. When he looked down, he saw he was in a puddle.. but the puddle transformed into a claw, and clamped over his leg! He tried to escape, but fell over. Chaos raised and solidified from the pavement, and, Sonic in his grasp, swung the hedgehog around and into a wall. "You can NOT defeat Chaos!" the creature mocked. "Chaos is too powerful! Too superior!"   
Sonic suddenly jumped to his feet, and rammed full speed (which is very fast) into the chuckling Chaos. Apon contact, Chaos made a loud squealing noise, and burst into several globs of liquid. After Sonic regained his composure, the globs all came together and formed a dazed creature. Regardless, Chaos managed to snap a claw around Sonic's neck and throw him, but Sonic formed a mid-air spindash, and slammed into the creature's forehead like a circular saw. The impact ripped through Chaos' body, throwing globs of liquid everywhere. Sonic stumbled and used the wall to support his beaten-up and dizzy body. The globs of liquid moved across the pavement to come together into one big puddle, and then the puddle moved away from Sonic. Sonic regained his composure and followed it. "Hey, where you going, 'ya big DRIP?" he shouted. The puddle ignored him, and moved over a storm-water drain, disappearing under the city. Sonic, panting a little, stretched to see into the drain. He couldn't see anything. "What in the heck was that?" he asked himself. He shrugged and decided to walk back to New Knothole for the night. As he left, a figure stepped from the shadows. Robotnik. He had sent Chaos on a mission to Station Square to stir up a little trouble.. he did not want a calm before this storm. He had seen the city's defences feeble attempts at attacking Chaos, and even Sonic himself almost met his match... and the creature was at his weakest and most vulnerable state! "So, Chaos really is the monster I travelled so far to collect!" he chuckled. "He can take over Station Square for me, I can build Robotnikland, I can pay off the Arack Empire, and the Freedom Fighters will fall to my knees! Sonic.. prepare to be destroyed by Doctor Robotnik and Chaos - the god of destruction!" 

*** 

It was the next morning, and Tails Prower was in the sky. Not flying by himself, but with the help of his biplane, the Tornado. It hadn't been used in a while, and Tails was making it his project to beef it up. He was using the yellow emerald from the Chaos Isle, installed into the power supply. "All systems go.." he murmered to himself, looking like someone who really knew what he was doing - which he was. He was flicking switches and pulling levers to steady the plane.. but he didn't notice a needle on the dashboard which was moving higher and higher up the meter.   
"Ready to test full power.." he said, reaching over to a button. He flicked up the protective casing, and was about to press the button... when he heard a steady beeping. His finger stopped three inches above its target, and Tails turned his head to the source of the noise. A light was flashing.   
"This isn't right.." he complained, looking for the source of the problem. Fuel tanks are above half full, velocity is fine.."   
He heard a loud explosion behind him which sent the plane into a nosedive, and he could smell smoke.   
He slapped himself across the forehead.   
"Engine heat.. engine heat.. always check the engine heat.." he complained. "Alright, I'm learning." He looked down to see how long until splashdown. Unfortunately, he saw he was heading full speed into a sand bank. Not wanting to be injured. He pulled up quickly. The plane banged in reply, and was sent into the air again, spinning. Then he began to fly sideways and lost control. He gritted his teeth and started banging things on the console. The plane righted itself, and Tails checked again.   
"Oh no!" he shouted.   
The plane had come inland, and was over the city!   
Tails imagined a crash in the middle of Speed Highway in peak hour.. quite messy. He pulled the control stick hard to the left as he began to lose control again and go down.. The cement rushed up towards him as he pulled back to level the plane, and he just made it.. about three inches to impact. He could see pedestrians' shocked faces as he flew a plane along the footpath, almost colliding with a few of them, who ducked out of the road or ran into telegraph poles. Again the plane went into a spin, and shot into the air, the engine spluttering. He could now see the beach again.. and the waterside resort that Sonic was staying at overnight. Tails squinted to look, and sure enough, there was a blue person lounging in a deck chair. 

Sonic scratched behind his ear as he read the newspaper.   
"TWISTED CREATURE ATTACKS - COPS USELESS" read the headline.   
"A strange, unidentified individual of unknown species attacked Station Square last night, and took hostage a female resident. Once again, police stupidity rears its ugly head, as cops blunder the seige and are scared witless into retreat. Luckily the monster disappeared by itself harming nobody.."   
Sonic snorted through his nose. "Disappeared by itself?" he asked. "Come on, who was the one who had a duel with it, risked his life and limbs and saved the city? A tiny bit of credit would be nice..." He looked down to the bottom of the page. "Weather forecast." he read. "Watch out. A tornado has been forecast to be heading in your direction.." He was annoyed by a whirring sound which was getting louder and louder, and someone shouting. "What the hell is that, a lawn mower?" he asked, putting the paper down. He was met face to face with Tails the Fox.. in the Tornado biplane.. out of control.. heading top speed towards him, rotor blades spinning. The hedgehog shouted an obscenity which wasn't heard over the noise, half-stumbled-half-rolled out of the deck chair, tripping over his own feet, and ran as fast as he could, which was pretty fast. But the plane was still gaining on him, so he dove headfirst into the resort swimming pool. When he brought his head up again, the plane was whizzing into the air, and Tails was shouting for help. Sonic, shocked, saw the biplane go down on the beach somewhere. There was a loud explosion, then silence. "Tails! What am I gonna do with you?" Sonic exclaimed, jumping out of the pool and shaking himself dry. He then ran towards the gate of the resort, with everybody cheering him on. There was no time to bask in the glory of being a local hero... he had to see if his buddy was alright! 

As Sonic left the city limits, a very different scene was playing in the air quite a distance away. A giant craft flew through the air absolutely silently, except for the whirring of the eerie jet engines. But on the inside, alarms were blaring at an almost deafening level.   
A single blue bird flew down the corridors of the craft, knocking things over.. but not causing half the damage that the E-101 soldiers were causing trying to catch it.   
"GET IT!!!" Robotnik's voice screamed through amplifiers. "STOP THAT STUPID BIRD-BRAIN CREATURE BEFORE IT TEARS THE WHOLE %$#(!! SHIP APART!" About ten robots tripped over each other trying to catch the creature. "I told you to increase the security levels on that thing's cell, Epsilon." Robotnik growled, his voice leaking into the amplifier system. "I'll make sure it gets it's full punishment for crossing me. Now, full speed, we are approaching the city.. I wish to give them a taste of Doctor Robotnik before I show them the extent of my wrath." 

A dark figure swept across the city, and ducked into an alley. Zero Tolerance grinned evilly as he awaited his prey. This would be easy. His target - Amy Rose. And she was walking down the street towards him. Zero had been watching Amy. She and Sonic were close.. and that was why he wanted her. The easiest way to Sonic's heart was through his friends - his greatest weakness. Zero un-clipped his helmet from his chest, and equipped his head. Amy would walk past, Zero would snatch her silently and blast off with her in search of Sonic. The perfect crime. He braced himself. 

Amy walked down the footpath with a bag full of groceries. She stumbled a little and an apple dropped out of the bag. She frowned and picked it up. It was bruised. She sighed and yawned. She had scheduled a meeting the night before, and as luck would have it, it was cancelled due to monster problems. She might have been the the leader of the Station Square Freedom Fighters, but she was also very bored. The goings on in Robotropolis never found their way to Station Square, and any kind of action was pretty much unheard of. And anything that DID happen, such as the monster the night before, was fenced off and taken care of by the town police. Freedom Fighters weren't a legal substitute for law enforcement.   
"Every day, the same old thing... same place different day." she sighed to herself. "I kinda miss the good old days.." Her mind wandered temporarily to the previous year.. when she and Sonic had a short adventure. She remembered the giant improved Mecha Sonic of the Anti-verse, and the battle which ensued. She shook her head, picked up her groceries and continued walking. 

"Come on, come on, what's taking her?" Zero grumbled impatiently. "Oh, here she comes." He assumed strike position and gritted his teeth. He was so tense that he almost screamed when something hit him from behind.. but he stopped himself. He turned to see what it was.   
"A garbage can lid?" he asked, removing the metal lid which had attached itself to his armor. "What the hell?" He frisbeed it away, and turned back to his position. There was another sound behind him. "Stupid alley cats.." he complained, listening to the noise of the garbage cans. One of the cans, which was on its side, rolled through the alley until it collided with his ankle, knocking him head over heels. "JEEPERS!" he squawked, trying to pull himself up. But more of the metal cans rolled from everywhere around and covered him. "WHAT IS THIS?" he screamed at the onslaught of cans, which seemed to be magnetized to his armor.   
"YAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!" 

Amy turned to the alley ahead of her. Why was somebody screaming and throwing cans about the place? She failed to see that all the cars on the road had simultaniously stopped.. she failed to notice the eerie silence that accompanied everybody looking into the sky.. but she did notice when the shadow fell over her. "Funny.. nobody forecast a storm for today.." she said to somebody standing beside her, who was to startled to hear her. She looked into the sky.. as blue as always. Not a cloud to be seen. But the street and footpath were shrouded in darkness. "What is this, an eclipse or something?" She asked. She noticed that everybody nearby was staring upwards at the sun.. so she turned and did the same. The streets remained so silent that you could hear a pin drop if one did. The only sound was Amy's paper grocery bag hitting the pavement.. fruits and cans rolling into the gutter.. with no attempt by anybody to pick them up. Amy stood frozen, her mouth open in a strange way. The shadow was caused by something flying low over the city.. blocking out the sun.. some kind of huge craft which seemed more suited to space travel than flying over the city. The only identifying mark as it travelled silently overhead was a yellow disk on the side.. with Robotnik's grinning face printed on it.   
"R...Robotnik?" Amy stammered, the only person in the city who spoke.   
"Could it be?"   
She squinted, as something detached from the ship and fell towards the ground. Then the ship, going into some kind of hyperdrive, rocketed out of sight, the only sound it made being the whoosh of air past it. It was only then that the noise piped up.. everybody beginning to talk simultaniously. Some were confused beyond rational thinking.. others were saying "UFO".. but Amy's eyes were still fixed on something that came off the strange craft.. something that was coming down very fast.. something that was zooming towards her head..   
CRASH!   
Before she knew what hit her, Amy was on the ground, rubbing her head. She looked on the ground beside her, and there was something soft and blue.. a bird! It was feathery, but hurt nonetheless. It wasn't moving. "Are you alright?" Amy asked sympathetically. She picked it up, and it opened its eyes. It was a small blue bird with some kind of locket around its neck. After it regained its composure, it flew out of her hands and hovered right before her. In the background, engines were starting up, and all the usual city noises were going into full effect.. as if the ship had somehow disabled all the machinary in the city.   
"Did you fall out of that thing?" Amy asked the bird, who obviously couldn't answer her anyway. In the corner of her eye she noticed a figure stumble from the alley. A strange, dark figure, that seemed to be wearing heavy armor. It stumbled towards her, disoriented. She didn't give it another thought, focusing on the bird. "Where do you come from?" she asked, trying to figure out a means of communication. "Are you.....HEY!" She was almost pushed over by the dark figure, who continued to stumble down the path. "Hey! Why not just push me into the gutter next time, creep?" she shouted sarcastically.   
"HUH?" the figure retorted, regaining its senses. It turned to them, and Amy could see that it was a robot.. metal covered every part of its body. "Hey..you!" the robot shouted at her. "Come here!" It began to walk back towards her. "Uh-oh.." she murmered. "QUICK!" she shouted at the bird, grabbing its wing and running around the corner. She ducked into a nearby burger store, and waited. She could see the robot pass by the windows, looking around for her. When it had gone, Amy let out her breath in a deep sigh. "Robots!" she exclaimed. "That thing must have something to do with Robotnik! Maybe we are going to have a little excitement today..!"   
"Hey, are you gonna buy something or what?" the attendant shouted impatiently. 

*** 

It was raining on the Floating Island. Knuckles had been thinking.. but the dry spot he had chosen was so comfortable that he just fell asleep. The pitter patter of rain had stopped, the silence waking him up. He was strange that way.. he usually slept by a waterfall or something, because he couldn't sleep in silence.. it was too suspicious. He yawned and stretched.. and saw something blue on the horizon. What was that? He squinted hard.. something was definately flying towards his island. He stood up and braced himself for the uninvited guest. It was moving quickly, and the shape bagn to become familiar.. a little TOO familiar. Sweat beginning to run down his face, he picked up a small metal nail off the ground. Another nail was attached to it. He pulled them apart, then let go.. they were magnetized together.   
"Oh.. no..." Knuckles stammered. "Oh, no no no! NO! Th.. the ChiChichi B..Bobo!" He stumbled on his own words as he frantically tried to get a grip. "Gotta.. call the mainland! Get help! THEY'VE COME BACK FOR ME!" His mind wandered to the time he had invaded their planet, and wondered how they got to Mobius so fast. He was completely unprepared for this. The alien ship hovered over the island as Knux frantically attempted to pull himself together. The ship's boosters stopped when it was at the center of the island, and there was silence. Then beams came from the underside.. bright blue beams from the ship to the island.. and things began to come out. Chichi Bobo warriors. Knux was terrified. They kept pouring out by the hundred.. and marching almost robotically. In fact, very robotically. TOO robotically. They burst out of the bushes in front of him.. E-101 robots.   
"WHAT?" Knuckles shouted, eyes wide in shock. "E-101's??" He ran through the bushes closer to the ship. And he saw Robotnik beam down. "Robotnik?" Knux asked, raising an eyebrow. "What the heck...?" He angrily burst out from the bushes and confronted the man.. who seemed unafraid.   
"Why, Knuckles!" Robotnik greeted, grinning.   
"Get..off." Knuckles said, blinded with rage both at his intrusion, and his ability to scare the echidna witless.   
"How about....no?" Robotnik asked. "I've got your island crawling with my robots! You're not going to just.. throw me off, are you?"   
"I can give it my best shot." Knux retorted through clenched teeth. Robotnik snorted in reply, and broke his eye contact.. seemingly admiring the scenery.   
"Is this some kind of a sick joke?" Knux asked. "What interest do you have in my island? And what are you doing showing up in a Chichi Bobo fighter craft, for God's sake?"   
"The Master Emerald." Robotnik replied, ignoring the second question. Knuckles laughed. "And you will get it off the island how?" he asked.   
"There's no way you're taking the Master, even with all these robots!"   
"Not in one piece, at least." Robotnik said in agreeance.   
"Y...what?" Knux asked.   
"Things are so much easier to move if you take them apart first." Robotnik replied. "Now, if you'll move aside, I'll just take the emerald.. or what's left of it.. and be on my way and leave you alone!" He lifted a microphone to his mouth. "All in position?" he asked. "Good. Lay your mines."   
Instantly, each and every E-101 robot began to lay something on the ground.. large round mines of some kind. Knuckles suddenly caught on. "BUT YOU'LL BLOW UP THE BLOODY ISLAND!" he protested. Robotnik shrugged. "Yeah. Well, most of it. We're just going to blow a hole in the middle, really. You can still live on the rim."   
"YOU SON OF A...!" Knuckles screamed hoarsely, throwing himself and his fist at Robotnik's face. But he was grabbed by two strangely-coloured E-series robots.   
"Tsk-tsk.." Robotnik said sarcastically. "Such a temper. You have three choices for the five minutes before detonation, as far as I see it. Choice one, you can kill me and rip me to shreds, after which you will promptly be given the same treatment by my robots. Secondly, you can try to disarm each and every bomb.. I'd say you'd get through about three of them before the rest of them blow you into the molecular level. Or three, you can run for the hills, echidna, 'cos you'll be needing that life in the future." he motioned for the robots to release the squirming echidna. Knux just looked at Robotnik helplessly. "You are a madman.." he said.   
"Really?" Robotnik asked. "Am I mad? Or am I... a genius? I've got ALL the technology at my hands!" He pressed his face so close to Knuckles' that the echidna could smell his breath. "It's time.. to take over.. the world!" He spoke into the microphone. "Robots, set your timers and get the hell out of there! Unless you want to be a robot carcass!" He turned back to Knuckles. "Run. little echidna!" he shouted. "Run, run for your life! Scamper away little bunny!"   
Knuckles wanted desperately to kill the scientist with a sharp right hook right then and there. But his island would still blow up, and the only difference would be that he would be target practice for all of Ivo's cronies.   
It was one of the few times Knuckles would ever run away from anything. Sometime amidst the ear piercing explosions, he lost conciousness. Perhaps he veered a little too close to a mine. When he woke up, most of the trees were burned, the island was floating at a funny angle and losing altitude, and the most visible difference was the enormous hole where Hidden Palace used to be. It stretched from the edge of Sandopolis, to the mountains, to the forest. Much of his island was gone.. irrecoverable. Knux looked down at a glowing green object.. a shard of the Master Emerald. He clutched it as a tear went down his cheek.   
"ROBOTNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIK!" he screamed into the air.   
The Floating Island hit the water with a crash, sending a tidal wave from coast to coast of the mainland. 

*** 

"FROGGY!" came a booming voice that shook the trees. Streak the Cat woke up with a start. "The heck?" he asked, getting off the hard bed and looking out the window of his cousin's forest shack. His cousin Big was walking around, holding his head, searching for something.   
"What's up, cuz?" Streak asked.   
Big turned to him. "I can't find my little pal Froggy!" he complained.   
"What, that big green frog?" Streak asked. "He'll be around somewhere."   
"No, no!" Big replied. "He would have come when I called him! He ALWAYS comes..!"   
"Don't sweat it.." Streak replied, trying to calm him down.   
"Ooh, I miss him already.." Big said. "What if he's in trouble? I gotta rescue him!"   
"Rescue?" Streak asked. "A frog?"   
"Yeah!" Big replied. "I'll go to the city and see if anybody's seen my good buddy!"   
With that, the large cat leapt through the trees and bounded through the forest.   
"Hey.....WHAT?" Streak shouted, running outside. "Hey, come on, Big! Wait for me, will you?" 

The frog let out a long croak and jumped down the street. People were startled to see it.. but they were more startled to see its tail. Yes, the large Mobian green frog was hopping around with a thirty-centimetre pointed tail following behind. It had sprouted after the strange encounter with the robots and the craft, and was dumped. The frog had tried to find its way back home, but couldn't think straight. There was something else clouding its mind... it just knew that it wanted to find Chaos. The word pounded in its tiny frog skull, and it couldn't rest until it found Chaos. It knew not what Chaos was, but it wouldn't rest until it found out. So, it hopped around in a random path in the hope of putting its mind to rest... 

Far away in Robotropolis... a different scene was playing out.   
"I am your brilliant creator, Doctor Robotnik." Robotnik insisted. "Do you know that? That means I am your master. And what I say, you do. Is all this clear, Gamma?"   
"It is clear, Lord Robotnik." E-102 Gamma insisted, intimidated.   
"Good." Robotnik replied. "It has been brought to my attention that you have a fault. That there was a problem in your creation. I intend to straighten it out. You will be the same as your brothers, and it will require extra training. I have set up a shooting range for you.. get to it!"   
The scientist walked away, leaving Gamma to his own devices. "Shooting range.." he mumbled, walking through a doorway that had been left open for him. He walked into a large room, and immediately, something red shot up in front of him. Startled, he blew it to pieces with one shot. Stuffing went everywhere. Gamma looked down at what it was... the head of an echidna lay severed on the ground. Not a real echidna.. a plush representation of one. He had no time to contemplate this before something orange flew through the air towards him. A fox doll.. He shot it in mid air like a clay pigeon. Another echidna doll popped up, and he spun around and blew it away. Two more dolls, and he jumped into the air and spun his head around, laser targeting and firing homing missiles. Stuffing flew everywhere. Gamma spun like a tornado, shooting doll after doll after doll after doll after doll after doll. Red and orange material everywhere. Suddenly, something blue popped up, attached to a moving lever. A Sonic the Hedgehog doll. Gamma raised his gun and pumped it full of holes. It fell to the ground, an unrecognisable mess. When nothing else happened, the robot, mission completed, walked back into the main hall. Robotnik stood there, looking startled. "I was monitoring that, Gamma!" he announced. "One hundred percent accuracy! And incredible speed! I can't see where the FAULT is, if you ask me!"   
Gamma raised his cannon in salute.   
"I am going to collect the Master Emerald shards for Chaos." Robotnik announced. "Then we will re-launch the Egg Carrier... we're going to have some fun, Gamma!" He laughed maliciously and left Gamma to himself.   
"Fascinating display, brother!" came a voice from elsewhere in the room. Gamma turned to see Beta approaching. "Absolutely fascinating! You're a real crack shot!"   
"That is appreciated, Beta!" Gamma replied.   
"SHUT UP!" screamed Beta, almost knocking Gamma over. "You think you're pretty tough, huh? Robotnik's favourite, huh?"   
"Favourite?" Gamma asked. "No, I don't think.."   
"You don't think! Of COURSE you don't think!" came the reply. "Do you wanna fight me, Bolthead?"   
"No, I do not wish.." Gamma started.   
"Maybe then we'll see who's the king of the castle, huh?" Beta yelled, raising his gun. "Come on, Gammaaa! Give me your best shot!" Beta started shooting homing missiles at Gamma. The startled Gamma ducked out of the way, targeted and blew up the missiles before they got to him. "I do not wish to fight you, Beta!" he complained.   
"I don't care what you wish!" Beta replied. "You can either fight back, or you can let me destroy you! No sweat, bro!"   
"Do not force me to do this!" Gamma warned, raising his gun. Beta started shooting again, laughing. "Whoooooooooo! Big man!" he shouted. Gamma jumped into the air, activated his laser targeting system, and targeted all the missiles. Then he let rip a cluster of his own homing missiles, each one colliding with one of Beta's, and the last shot hit Beta himself. The attacking robot let out a loud noise and flew backwards. He hit the ground with a crash, and didn't get back up again.   
"Beta?" Gamma asked. "Beta? Are you operative?" He recieved no reply.   
"Oh dear..." Gamma said. "I should find Father.... I mean Packbell..." 

"GONE?? WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'GONE'??" Robotnik screamed at the top of his lungs.   
Mecha Sonic's eyes dimmed. All the cargo in the Egg Carrier was lost before it got back to Robotropolis, sire... there was damage to the cargo hold.."   
"That bird.." Robotnik muttered, remembering the escaped animal causing havoc on the flight. "That stupid little bird cost me my emerald shards... I will KILL it if I ever catch it!"   
A strange puddle suddenly formed at his feet. He would be confused if he didn't know exactly what it was. The body of Chaos began to form and solidify. "You.. do not have the power source, Ivo Robotnik?" he asked. "No I do not!" Robotnik shouted, frustrated. "I shall have to find them myself!"   
Chaos looked a little annoyed, but sustained his composure.   
"It is no trouble, Ivo Robotnik.." he said in his liquid voice. "Give to Chaos the frog so that his power may be increased and he can assist in locating the power source.."   
"The frog?" Robotnik asked, side-eying the liquid monster.   
"The frog that you fed with grey so bright glowing.." Chaos replied.   
"You need the frog?" Robotnik repeated.   
"Yessss.." Chaos hissed. "It absorbed a part of Chaos when Chaos spoke through it... now Chaos must absorb part of the frog so that he might be complete, and assist you to the fullest extent.. Perfection cannot be acheived without the frog."   
"I DON'T HAVE THE FROG!" Robotnik erupted. "I DUMPED the stupid frog! I had no idea we needed it again!"   
"The frog is gone... the power source is gone..." Chaos assessed the situation. "Ivo Robotnik, this is not good."   
"I KNOW THAT!" Robotnik yelled. "DON'T YOU THINK I KNOW THAT??"   
"We must locate the frog.." Chaos announced.   
"How could we do that?" Mecha asked. "We have no means of telling it apart from other frogs.."   
"As Chaos has said, the frog absorbed a part of Chaos.." Chaos replied.   
"The frog is posessed by Chaos.. and has the appearance of Chaos.."   
"Get the E-102 robots, Mecha." Robotnik said. "We're going on a frog hunt." 

"You did WHAT?" Packbell asked, as Gamma carried his brother robot into the Commander's workshop.   
"He forced me to fight him..." Gamma replied. "I didn't want to, but.. it was self defence, Packbell."   
"Oh Gamma..." Packbell sighed. "Rivalry between your siblings... here, give me a look."   
"Can he be repaired?" Gamma asked, setting Beta down on a table. Packbell studied the robot. "It will take some time, but he is able to be repaired." he replied, at last. "I will fix him.. you go, I think Robotnik has some orders for you."   
"Thank you for helping..." Gamma replied.   
"Don't mention it." Packbell replied. "He will be repaired shortly." 

*** 

Sonic ran past palm trees on Emerald Coast, the name of the beach where Station Square met the ocean. He went over a bridge, and passed deck chairs and people having picnics. Tails' plane must have gone down quite a distance from where he thought it had.   
He looked at the ground and noticed something half-buried in sand. It was green and glowing. He picked it up.. what was it? It was relatively small, and looked as if it was a shard of something bigger. It also seemed to be creating its own glow. "Weird!" he exclaimed, picking it up and taking it with him.   
Sonic saw a number of people crowding around a section of water near a jetty. They were fascinated with something.. Sonic forgot his mission for a second to see what they were so interested in. He looked over the side of the jetty.. something was squirming around in the water. It was small, black and white, and appeared to be in crisis. A baby orca whale! It was stuck in an old fishing net.   
"Somebody help him! He'll die!" someone shouted.   
"Ah well, I guess it's up to me.." Sonic said. "It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a blue hedgehog who doesn't like getting wet!"   
Sonic jumped off the side of the jetty and grunted when he touched the water. Oh how he hated water.. he never had been able to swim. Obviously, years ago on the Floating Island's Hydrocity section wasn't his favourite adventure.   
He waded over towards the baby whale and began to un-tangle the ropes. When it was free, he was greeted with cheering from the people above. But then something bumped his feet hard under the water. He froze.. what was that? He began to swim towards the jetty.. oh how he HATED water. He grabbed onto the wooden support, when something clamped his leg and pulled him underwater.   
Squirming frantically, he tried to keep his barings, then, as a self-defense act, he buzzed into a spin-dash. At least it freed him. And he saw what was attacking him.. the orca whale's mother. And she wasn't happy. Sonic practically leapt out of the water and onto the long jetty... and the furious adult whale followed him! It was MASSIVE! It actually broke up the jetty on it's rampage. Lucky Sonic was fast!   
"I've never seen a whale act like this!" he shouted aloud. The jetty swayed left and right as the orca rammed and broke it. Eventually, when Sonic was far enough away from the baby whale, the orca calmed down and sank into the water.. slightly bloodied from its attack. As for Sonic, he had to jump off the jetty before it collapsed completely! He jumped off the side as the wooden structure came to a spectacular end.. and he hit the sand with a thump. Tails looked down at the hedgehog. "Whoa, Sonic.. you okay?" he asked. "Tails?" Sonic asked. He looked up and saw the fox and the broken Tornado. "Tails, be happy... I just destroyed half the beach and nearly got myself killed coming to look for you." Tails just grinned. 

Gamma walked up to Robotnik, who was already talking to Delta and Epsilon. "Get over here, Gamma, you're late!" he shouted, impatiently. "You three, I need to recover that frog. It is absolutely vital to my plans! Part of Chaos was absorbed in it.. he cannot achieve perfection without it! So split up and look for it! Chaos informs me that the frog should have his tail. Therefore, it is easy to distinguish. Also, any Master Emerald fragments you can find on the way, bring them to me! You are dismissed!" "A tailed frog?" Gamma thought. "What a bizarre feature." 

"So, what's the story?" Sonic asked, back at the resort. "It's not like you to just crash like that.. you're too good a pilot!"   
"I've been fixing up the Tornado.." Tails replied. "It's not quite.. perfected yet. It still has a few bugs." He smiled. "Hey Sonic.. what's that?"   
"Huh?" Sonic asked. "Oh, this green glowing thing? I dunno! I found it on the beach! I thought it looked cool, so I kept it." He held his head.   
"Ugh.. funny, I feel really light-headed.."   
"Light-headed?" Tails asked.   
"Yeah.." Sonic replied. "Like there's a little less gravity or something.. I feel lighter. Weird.."   
"Probably that run-in with the whale back there." Tails replied. "Got you all worked up. Hey Sonic, do you wanna help me get the Tornado back to the hangar in the forest?"   
"Sure thing, Tails!" Sonic replied. A strong wind blew his quills back. "Wind is strong today.." Tails commented.   
"Yeah, they're forecasting a tornado to hit." Sonic replied. Tails laughed. "The tornado DID hit, Sonic! Too bad I was IN it!" Sonic laughed also. "C'mon Tails, lets wing it to the Great Forest. You take the plane, I'll run by foot.. 

Robotnik hovered along the ground in one of his machines. He called it the Egg Hornet.. an upgrade on his Egg-O-Matic, his usual mode of transportation. And acting as navigator was none other than Chaos.. he could detect the presence of the frog, seeing as it contained a part of him.   
"Chaos was observant to notice that you have in your posession a craft of the Chichi Bobo.." Chaos spoke up, wavering.   
"Yes.." Robotnik replied. "Quite a piece of work.. I stole it myself." "You stole from them..." Chaos replied, stopping and looking Robotnik in the eyes.   
"Yes... how do you know of the Chichi Bobo?" Robotnik asked curiously. There was a long uneasy silence. "The frog is this way.. come." Chaos hissed, finally. Robotnik was confused, but didn't argue. 

"Wow.. this place is really neat, huh?" Sonic asked, looking over the hangar. It overlooked a cliff at the edge of the forest, which dropped into the ocean below.   
"It was built by architects of Mobitropolis for King Acorn's army, I think.." Tails replied.   
"Wow.. cool!" Sonic exclaimed. He scratched his chin with the green shard, just as Tails had finished putting the plane back in the hangar.   
"Can I have a look at that?" Tails asked.   
"Yeah.. here, kid." Sonic replied, tossing the shard to Tails. The hedgehog looked into the forest strangely.. he could hear voices. "Who's there..?" he asked, listening carefully. Suddenly he recognised one of the voices. "Robotnik!" he announced. "Tails, wait here!"   
The hedgehog ran into the forest and, in a clearing up ahead, saw what was distinctly one of Robotnik's machines. And the doctor himself was inside. Not seeing anybody else, Sonic didn't feel threatened.. he stormed out of the trees.   
"Well well!" he announced loudly. "It's a giant talking egg!" Robotnik turned his head, and almost fell out of his hovercraft. "Sonic!" he announced in shock. "Well, this IS a surprise!"   
"You're a bit stupid to leave your big city all alone with no protection!" Sonic said in frustration that, over the years, Robotnik still apparently had no fear of him.   
"Stupid? I am Doctor Robotnik! The greatest scientific genius of all time, you insignificant mammal!" Robotnik gloated.   
"Whatever you say, egg-man." Sonic replied sarcastically.   
"You would be wise to go back to wherever you came from, Sonic.." Robotnik commented. "I am looking for something and it isn't you.. don't kill yourself by sticking around and irritating me."   
"I'll irritate whoever I want, egg-man!" Sonic replied. "Maybe I'll call you that from now on, huh? Egg-man! Egg-man!"   
"As you wish..." Robotnik growled, pushing a button. Instantly, missile launchers appeared all over the contraption he was riding in. "Say bye-bye, Sonic!"   
The small rockets flew around like wasps, and made quite a sting when they collided with something. Perhaps that was why the machine was called the Egg Hornet. Sonic had quite a task to avoid them all, but managed to come out panting and unscathed. "Is that...the best...you can do?" he asked, catching his breath.   
"Lucky..." Robotnik muttered. "But don't flatter yourself, you know more is coming."   
Suddenly an orange fox ran into the clearing. "Sonic! Are you alright?" Tails asked. "Robotnik! What are YOU doing here?"   
Robotnik didn't reply.. he was staring at what was in Tails' hand. "Where did you find that, you little scamp?" he asked.   
Tails looked down at the green jewel, but didn't reply to Robotnik's question.   
"No matter.." Robotnik said. "CHAOS! You want a power source? That fox over there! It's dinnertime, Chaos!"   
"Chaos?" Sonic asked, thinking of the night before.   
"Who's Chaos?" Tails asked. He was given an answer by a sticky tentacle that came out of a tree, wrapped around his waist, and pulled him up in ten seconds flat.   
"TAILS!!" Sonic screamed. The jewel in Tails' hand fell to the ground.   
"It is!" Robotnik announced happily. "A shard of the Master Emerald!"   
"A shard of the Master Emerald?" Sonic asked. He was silenced when Tails was thrown out of the tree and landed on him, throwing him to the ground.   
"FETCH, CHAOS!" Robotnik shouted.   
Drops of water began to drip from the tree and run down the tree trunk. Sonic had seen this before, but it still horrified him - this bizarre liquid creature who could practically hide anywhere. The liquid began to solidify and form bones, eyes, limbs, and one big brain. The transparent wavering Chaos monster walked up to the emerald shard and picked it up. "A fragment of the Master Emerald.." Sonic repeated. "The emerald is broken?"   
Chaos hissed as he absorbed the emerald shard.. it floated around inside him, glowing brightly. Then the glow spread to the rest of his body, and he began to grow... his arms grew huge, and the bones inside thickened to form a massive crab-like claw. Chaos laughed loudly. "BEHOLD!" he shouted. "Chaos Zero has become Chaos One! One seventh of perfection!" "Chaos One?" Sonic asked. "Robotnik... where did you dig up this thing? What are you up to?"   
"I have plans.." Robotnik snarled evilly. "Lets just say that I think Station Square is a rather strange name... Robotnikland has more of a ring to it." He laughed, and signalled to Chaos. "Come, Chaos!" he shouted. "Lets find that frog of yours! And if you're a good little monster, there's even some emeralds in it for you!"   
The Chaos monster leapt off the cliff into the water below, and Robotnik and the Egg Hornet followed suit.   
"This is so weird.." Sonic murmured. "That monster kind of evolved when Robotnik fed it the emerald shard.."   
"And that shard was part of the Master Emerald!" Tails added. "I wonder if Knux is okay?"   
Sonic shook his head. "I think we'd better see if we can find any more emerald pieces.." he said. "The bigger that thing grows, the harder it's gonna be to stop..." 

CHAPTER TWO: CHAOS TWO 

Knuckles squinted in the light. "So, this is Station Square." he commented. "Gah, I hate the city. Give me desolate any time." He looked at a large sign. "Speed Highway" it read.   
"Speed Highway?" Knuckles said to himself. "This isn't where I want to be." He looked at the map he was holding. "Let's see... I need to find Sonic, as much as it pains me, and he'd be at that resort place he's staying at." He pointed on the map. "The resort is... there, and I am... here. Ah geez, how could I make that kind of mistake? Lessee.. I could go via the Town Hall, or the actory building here.. Town Hall is closer.. that would mean.. HEY!"   
The echidna tripped over something and landed flat on his face. "Unnnnh.." he moaned. "Who left that thing lying around?" He looked at what tripped him, and almost collapsed again.   
A MASTER EMERALD SHARD!   
"What??" Knuckles yelled. "HOW??" He joyfully picked up the shard, and another green glow somewhere caught his eye.   
"They're all over the place!" Knux realised. "Here I am planning to bust into Robotropolis and flush them out, and they're all right HERE! They must have fallen out of Robotnik's ship!"   
He looked up, even though the vessel was long gone. "I wonder how many fell out?" he asked himself. "Well, this makes my job a little easier and a little harder... easier in that I don't have to invade Robotnik's city... harder in that I'm going to have to search every point on the flight path of Robotnik's ship to find where they all dropped..." 

The wind was furious as Sonic and Tails trekked through the hills. "What IS this place?" Tails asked. Sonic shrugged. There were windmills everywhere, all working at maximum capacity.   
"I dunno, it looks like a place for generating electricity." Sonic said.   
"Maybe it's where Station Square get their power?" Tails suggested.   
"Maybe.." Sonic replied. "Keep on the lookout for pieces of the emerald, Tails.   
"Gosh it's windy today!" Tails complained. The two went over a bridge, as the sky grew dark.   
"I wonder how Knuckles is faring without the Master Emerald?" Sonic asked. "The Floating Island is probably sunk!"   
"And he won't be able to repair it if that Chaos thing keeps swallowing them all!" Tails added. "Hey Sonic, where did that creature come from, anyway?"   
Sonic didn't reply.   
"Sonic?" Tails asked.   
"Tails... run.. it's the tornado!" Sonic suddenly said.   
"What?" Tails asked. "No! The Tornado is back in the hangar, remember?"   
"NO!" Sonic replied. "I don't mean the Tornado, I mean the TORNADO!"   
"What the heck?" Tails asked.   
"The FORECAST tornado!" Sonic shouted.   
Tails looked at where Sonic was gazing. A massive twister was ripping through the countryside, throwing windmills and machines about. It was heading their way.. and it was faster than them.   
"TAILS! GET INSIDE!" Sonic shouted, struggling against the wind. He opened the door to a large windmill, and the two went inside and slammed it shut. They waited.. nothing to be heard except the squeaking of windmill gears working in overdrive powering a buzzing generator.   
"Is it gone?" Tails asked.   
The windmill was ripped out of the ground, and its passengers were strewn about. They could see the world spinning past them through the hole in the bottom. They were thrown about like rag dolls, then the windmill was tossed like a javelin through the air, and landed on the ground, throwing Sonic and Tails several meters into a pile of debris.   
"Ow." Sonic commented.   
Tails looked around the place... devistation everywhere. He could see several windmills, barns, and the remains of all manner of structures.. and something was glowing green amidst it all.   
"Sonic.. an emerald!" he shouted.   
"Giant whales.. Twisters.. Liquid monsters.." Sonic grumbled, ignoring the statement.   
"Sonic!" Tails shouted again. "An EMERALD!"   
"Huh?" Sonic asked, looking at the green glowing shard. "HEY! Cool! That's lucky!"   
"Lets go back to the city, Sonic.." Tails said, yawning. "We can continue this tomorrow, it's getting dark." 

Knuckles walked down the street with the four green Master Emerald shards that were the result of searching Speed Highway all day. It was now dark, and he was looking for the next place that he might find some parts of his most valued treasure. He wouldn't be able to sleep with his island in such turmoil, so he needed not worry about that. He passed by a huge building labelled "Casino", and, at first glance, he thought they had a giant gold statue of Sonic the Hedgehog! He chuckled to himself. "Nah.. couldn't be!" he said. He had a look inside anyway.   
The casino was absolutely massive, to say the least.. though Knux had never seen the inside of a casino, he figured this was pretty big. They had all sorts of decorations, with lights all over them... a pirate ship, an automated lion's head... the place wasn't very busy, but it sure was beautiful. Then Knuckles noticed, beside a card table, a glass case with all kinds of prizes in it.. one of them was an emerald shard!   
Knuckles walked up to the ferret who was dealing the card game. "Gimme that emerald!" he demanded. The ferret laughed. "Sure pal! If you win this little game!"   
"No time for games!" Knux protested.   
"Sorry pal, rules is rules." the ferret replied.   
Knuckles looked around at all the security guards lining the walls. Punching this guy out and smashing the glass was definately out of the question. Though he was in desperation, Knux was defeated, and walked outside the casino. He thought he would have to bust in and take it after-hours or something. Not that he wanted to look like a criminal, but he decided that the fate of the Floating Island was more important than a game of cards. He glanced in the darkness and saw two figures looking very much like Sonic and Tails. "Why would they be here?" he asked himself. Shrugging it off, he walked away in search of more pieces of his emerald. 

Sonic and Tails walked down one of the many streets of Station Square. As they did, Sonic noticed the huge building marked "Casino". Somebody walked out the door. It was dark, but Sonic thought it looked like Knuckles. "Hey, is that Knux?" he asked.   
"I don't think so.." Tails replied. "Why would he be here? He doesn't gamble!"   
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Sonic replied. "Hey Tails, wanna check out the casino?"   
"I guess so!" Tails replied, smiling. "Nothing better to do.."   
The casino wasn't very busy that night.. but it was a spectacular building. Inside, there was a giant pirate ship, and huge gold statues of people. And of course, there were poker machines. LOTS of poker machines. Sonic and Tails looked around in awe. Then Sonic spotted something in a display case of prizes.   
"Tails! Is that....an emerald?" he asked. Tails looked. "Yeah!" he replied, holding up the other one and comparing them.   
"Sir!" Sonic shouted to a brown ferret shuffling a pack of cards. "We need that emerald!"   
"Gotta be in it to win it." the ferret replied, not shifting his gaze.   
"You don't understand!" Sonic replied. "This is important! Doctor Robotnik.."   
"Gambling is important." the ferret replied. "This casino is important. My next paycheck is important. So if you wannit so badly, hand over some chips and bet for it."   
"Can we buy it off you?" Tails asked.   
"Buy it?" the ferret asked. "With what? You gonna shave your fur off and make me a hat?"   
"He's right, Tails.." Sonic added. "We don't have any mon..."   
"This!" Tails replied, holding up something glowing yellow. "It's the eighth Chaos Emerald!"   
Sonic stared at the object blankly. "Tails, what the heck?" he asked.   
"That's not a Chaos Emerald." the ferret replied. "It's a big jagged yellow rock."   
"It's not like the other emeralds!" Tails replied. "It's special! Worth much more than that green thing in the display case. You gonna take it?" The ferret compared the jewels for a long time, and finally let out a sigh. 

"Tails, where did you get that thing from?" Sonic asked, walking outside with the two shards of the Master Emerald.   
"It's a long story.." Tails admitted. "Lets get some sleep. We can keep going in the morning."   
"I wonder how many of these things there are?" Sonic asked. "They seem to have fallen everywhere! I wonder if Knux is out looking for them as well?"   
"Well, that would make FOUR of us!" somebody yelled from the shadows. Before Sonic could turn, somebody whacked him over the head. He sprawled fowards, and he was caught in a cloud of purple smoke. The smoke made him dissy, and he toppled over.. the last thing he heard being Tails' protests that someone was stealing his emerald. 

"HEY!" Streak shouted, running up to his cousin. When he caught up, he started panting for breath.   
"Big.. what are you.. doing?" Streak asked.   
"Looking for my poliwag pal, Froggy!" Big replied. "Look! There he is!"   
A frog with a long tail hopped past.   
"Uh... he looks kinda.... funny." Streak commented.   
"I'd better follow Froggy before he gets hurt!" Big declared.   
"Hey, I oughta follow YOU before you get hurt, ya big lug!" Streak replied. But Big was already gone. Streak shrugged strongly. "A... frog!" he exclaimed. "Just a dumb frog! Hey Big! Wait up!" 

"What.. happened?" Sonic asked, waking up. It was daylight, and the both of them were lying in a gutter outside the casino. People must have thought they were a couple of drunks.   
"Robotnik.." Tails replied.   
"That was Robotnik?" Sonic asked. "He must be pretty desperate! I mean.. he MUGGED us! He has all the technology at his hands, and he MUGGED us outside a casino!"   
"He's got three emerald shards now.." Tails lamented.   
"Two." Sonic replied, holding up an emerald. "He took yours, he didn't seem to know I had one too."   
"Oh, cool." Tails replied. "But still, that's our one to his two, and that's NOT good..."   
"Let's get busy..." Sonic replied. "We've gotta get more of these things, maybe we can stop him from getting any further. I'd hate to see what happens to that Chaos creature after it evolves again... 

Knuckles snapped awake. He was at the base of a temple. "What?" he asked. "Hang on.. where am I?" He realised that the last thing he remembered was walking down the street... now he was in an ancient city with a massive temple. Moreso, the place was swarming with echidnas! Knux walked through the crowd with his jaw hanging wide open. How had he gotten there? Where was he? The questions pounded in his mind. He shook his head and saw two echidnas standing at the base of the temple having an argument... and one of them was Tikal!   
"Could it be?" Knux gasped. He ran up to the two... they were dressed up very strangely, more elaborately than the other echidnas, and Tikal's hands weren't abnormally large like they were last time they had met. Knux shook his head. "No... it can't be.. it isn't." he told himself. "TIKAL!" the other echidna raged.   
"It is." Knux said to himself.   
The other echidna, who was much older and looked like a chief of some kind, looked down angrily at Tikal.   
"Tikal, they are coming! We have to fight back!" he commanded.   
"No, father!" Tikal replied. "We are no match for them! We have to flee!"   
"This is the third test!" the chief replied. "We have survived two previous! The echidna civilization will prevail! It is our gods' will!"   
"Only because we had help in the other tests, father!" Tikal protested.   
"In the first test we had the Xnaoo Emeralds! In the second test we had the Sky Sanctuary from Floating Island! We have nothing now, father!"   
"We must fight!" the chief replied, unfazed. "Fight, or die!" With that, he walked away, and Tikal sighed deeply. Knuckles ran up to her.   
"Tikal!" he shouted. Tikal turned around. "Yes?" she asked.   
"Tikal, it's me!" Knux replied. "Where are we? How did I get here?"   
Tikal looked confused. "I'm sorry, I... I don't know you." she replied. Knuckles' heart fell into his stomach. "Tikal!" he exclaimed. "It's me! Knuckles! Remember?"   
"I'm sorry.." Tikal replied. "I can't help you. I.. need to go now. You understand.."   
She began to walk away.   
"No! Tikal!" Knuckles shouted. "Tikal! Tikal! TIKAAAAAAAAAAL!!!" The people on the city street looked at him strangely.   
"TIKAL!" he shouted again. He opened his eyes. He was standing back at Station Square. It was daytime.. Everybody was staring. Knux realised that he was dreaming, and must have been screaming "Tikal" in his sleep.   
"Uhhh... eheh.." he chuckled embarrasedly. He walked away, flushed.   
"Maybe I really DO need more sleep!" he decided. He looked up, and noticed that he was near the resort that Sonic was staying at. Somebody walked in the door...   
DOCTOR ROBOTNIK!   
The hate that Knuckles felt for that man at that moment was unrivalled. He couldn't help but storm into the hotel so he could punch the good doctor's head inside out. When he went inside, he noticed also that Robotnik had a very proud look on his face, and was clutching a shard of the Master Emerald!   
"He is asking for it so badly that it's funny!" Knux declared. "HEY! YOU! GET BACK HERE!"   
But Robotnik had already taken the elevator. Knux pressed the button and impatiently waited for it to come back down. It did, the doors opened, and Knuckles stormed in angrily. 

Robotnik had rented the luxury suite. It was incredible.. fully furnished and clean. Knux wondered for a second why Robotnik was renting a room at a Station Square hotel.. but then he remembered why he was there.   
"ROBOTNIK!" he shouted.   
Robotnik turned around, shocked. "Knu...Knuckles!" he stammered.   
"Give me the Master Emerald!" Knuckles threatened. "If you do that, I won't bloody up your face as much!"   
"You want it?" Robotnik cackled "COME AND GET IT!"   
"Gladly!" Knuckles replied.   
"CHAOS!" Robotnik yelled.   
"Huh?" Knuckles turned around and was hit in the head with a flying puddle! "GAAAH!" he yelled, toppling over. As he pickled himself up, he saw the puddle was at Robotnik's feet.. and it began to transform. It grew and solidified into a barely human shape, just taller than Robotnik, with a huge crab's claw.   
"What the hell is that thing?" Knuckles demanded.   
"Knuckles... meet Chaos One!" Robotnik replied. "Soon to become Chaos Two!"   
"You have another emerald for Chaos?" Chaos asked, not shifting his gaze from the echidna.   
"Indeed I do, Chaos!" Robotnik replied. "Catch!" He threw the emerald shard at Chaos.   
"NO!!" Knux shouted, leaping.   
Chaos smacked him out of the way, and grabbed the emerald hungrily in his claw. It immediately passed through his skin and into his liquid interior, where it began to glow brightly. Then Chaos' body shape began to change. His arms grew longer... His entire body grew bigger and bulkier.. his head changed and grew three short prongs down the back. When he stopped glowing, he was about twice Robotnik's height.   
"Yes....YES!" Robotnik yelled. "It's working! It's WORKING! STATION SQUARE WILL BE MINE!"   
"What.. the HECK?" Knuckles demanded.   
Chaos looked down at him intimidatingly. "Meet.. Chaos.. Two!" he boomed. Then he banged both fists on his chest and snarled. Knuckles took a step back... How did Robotnik gain posession of a giant liquid gorilla? It made no sense!   
Chaos sucked his body mass into a giant ball, and bounced towards Knuckles, knocking over funature. Knux ducked out of the way, and raised both fists in attack formation. When the ball came close, he punched it as hard as he could... but Chaos just re-formed and solidified with Knuckles' hand trapped, snarled and threw the echidna across the room.   
"YESS!" Robotnik hissed evilly.   
Knuckles picked himself up, dazed, then jumped across the room in a leap and a bound with his fist outstretched. But Chaos split in two, re-formed behind him, and punched him from behind into the wall. Robotnik, grinning, hopped into an elevator across the room. "Come, Chaos!" he called. "That's enough! We must be gone to find more emeralds for you!" Chaos melted into a puddle, and slithered into the elevator.   
"Maybe you should go find your friend Sonic!" Robotnik suggested to Knuckles.   
Knux, sprawled on the ground, looked up and growled. "What about Sonic?" he asked.   
"He's looking for the pieces of the emerald too, you know!"   
"What??" Knux demanded. "What would SONIC want with the Master Emerald?"   
"You're not the only one on a wild goose chase, idiot!" Robotnik shouted back. "Why should I ruin the surprise?" With that, he pressed a button on the elevator. "Ciao." he called.   
Knux picked himself up and hurled himself at the elevator, but the door closed on his face. He fell backwards and held his head.   
"Good grief!" he exclaimed. "That creature.. or whatever it is.. grows when he gives it an emerald shard! Lucky he didn't find mine!"   
He walked to the other elevator - the one he got there in - and opened the door. The emerald shards were sitting there where he left them. "I'd better truck it back to the Floating Island and store these!" he announced. "And I need somewhere to think." 

CHAPTER THREE: CHAOS FOUR 

Amy Rose stared at the locket around the bird's neck. "This is your family, huh?" she asked, staring at the family of birds in the picture. "Don't worry.. I'll help you get back to them! You must have had it rough, being on Robotnik's ship and all... was he going to turn you into a robot?"   
"It's not as bad as it sounds, honey." came a voice.   
Amy looked around.. and she saw the black robot that had chased her before! She stumbled backwards. "You!" she exclaimed.   
"Yes.. ME!" the robot replied. "Maybe you should learn not to run from Zero Tolerance! There's no escape.. I can track you wherever you go! Now.. stand still.. I won't hurt you..... much."   
"Oh really.." Amy began, slowly reaching to a stick on her belt.   
"yeees, REALLY!" the robot retorted.   
"Well... TAKE THIS!"   
Amy grabbed the metal stick, pressed a button, and a hammer extended from it! Before the robot knew what was coming, she brought it down hard onto his metal head. He limped around, disoriented, and Amy and the bird ran away. 

"Twinkle Park." Streak read. "Hey Big! You think that frog is around here?"   
"I saw him hop in!" Big replied.   
"But which way did it go?" Streak asked.   
Big looked around, and his eyes rested on a large lake in the middle of the theme park. "Maybe I could fish for him!"   
Streak sighed. "Of course!" he said, sarcastically. "Fish for a frog! Why didn't I think of that?"   
Big cast his lure and waited.   
About three hours later, at nightfall, it was still silent.   
"Face it, Big, your pet has flown the coop." Streak said. "Can we go home?"   
"We have to find Froggy!" Big insisted.   
"If Froggy was going to take your FISH bait, on your FISHING pole, he would have already!" Streak argued. "Come on! You've caught ten fish tonight! How would you like a fish for a pet?"   
"FROGGY!" Big replied.   
"Oh alright! I get the picture! The fish was a bad idea." Streak exclaimed.   
"No, I mean.. Froggy!" Big yelled. He dragged in his line, and the frog was on the end!   
"I don't believe it!" Streak exclaimed. He shook his head. "Well, we have the frog.. lets go home."   
"Alrighty then!" Big replied. He cheerfully carried the struggling frog towards Streak... and tripped over a lolly wrapper on the ground. The frog went flying into Streak! The cat yelled and tried to grab the frog as it bounced away. But it was no use, the frog was gone.   
"Well.. tough luck." Streak lamented. "The one that got away, eh Big? Come on.. let's go back..."   
"FROGGY! COME BACK HERE!" Big called. Streak frowned as his cousin took off after the frog. "You're not seriously thinking of following that thing again, are you?" he asked.   
But Big was gone. Streak growled and took off after him. "This is getting under my skin.." he said. 

"Oh my God." Sonic cursed, looking apon the Floating Island. Not only was it in the water, but it was nearly destroyed. It was now more like an atole than an island. A huge hole was ripped in the center, which was now an enormous salt water lake. Hidden Palace, and probably Lava Reef, were completely obliterated.   
"Poor Knux.." Sonic said. "He'd be devistated! I wonder where he went? No sign of him here.."   
"I dunno.." Tails replied, switching off the teleporter. He heard a crack in the ice below him. "Sonic, I don't like Ice Cap.." he complained.   
"Why'd we come here?"   
"I just wanted to see what happened to the island to break the Master Emerald... this is the highest point."   
Tails heard another crack. "Are you sure this is safe?" he asked. "Of course it is." Sonic assured him.   
Seconds later, they were both falling into the caverns below. They hit the ground with a soft thump.. luckily landing on a pillow of snow.   
"Yeah, real safe, Sonic." Tails complained, staring up at the hole above them.   
"Ah geez.." Sonic whinged. "Can this expedition get any worse?" They heard a rumbling, and Tails frowned at Sonic.   
"Oh man, I hope that's your stomach, Tails." Sonic said. I think this cave is unstable!" Tails announced. "We gotta get outta here!" Sonic looked around for an exit. But he couldn't see one.. the only things in the cave were icicles. HUGE icicles. One of them attached to the roof would have to have been a hundred metres from base to tip. There was another rumble, and a cracking sound.   
"Take cover!" Sonic warned, as the ground began to shake. They tumbled into a corner, as the icicles began to fall. One by one, the sharp spears of ice hit the ground and exploded. Then the big one fell. When it hit the ground, that was the end of the entire cave. It generated enough force to blow the entire thing open, and sent Sonic and Tails careening down the snow covered mountain. Both of them grabbed broken icicles and used them to snowboard down the mountain.. and it was a good thing, because the entire mountain was spraying after them in a massive avalanche.   
Sonic and Tails screamed as they missed tree after tree, collided and smashed through thin ice structures, and leapt off rocks. The rumble of the avalanche was getting closer and closer.. until their paths skewed off sideways into a natural half-pipe, avoiding the avalanche of snow, and sending them into an embankment. They lay there in a heap, and another emerald shard fell from somewhere onto Sonic's head.   
"I've seen more natural disasters in the last two days than I need to see in the rest of my life." the hedgehog moaned. 

Knuckles' foot came down next to Sonic's head. "Well well, what a pleasant surprise." he said, sarcastically.   
"Knuckles!" Sonic said in surprise. "Where'd you come from?"   
Knuckles looked at the emerald shards that Sonic and Tails were holding. "What are you doing on my island, rummaging for my emerald pieces?" he asked.   
Sonic looked at the shards. "Uhh.. hey Knux, I can explain!"   
"Oh, I have NO doubt!" Knuckles retorted. "But whatever the situation, it doesn't change the fact that you're on MY island with MY emeralds! Sonic, I've told you NEVER to touch my emerald, NEVER to meddle with my affairs, and I must have told you a THOUSAND times NEVER to come to my island when I am not there.. three simple rules, yet here you are, breaking all three of them!"   
"Knux, please!" Sonic begged. "Robotnik has this creature, and.."   
"Get up!" Knuckles demanded.   
"You can't boss me around!" Sonic replied, frustrated.   
Knux raised his fist. "ON THIS ISLAND, I AM GUARDIAN, AND I HAVE AUTHORITY OVER YOU!" he screamed angrily. "NOW GET UP!"   
Sonic got up. "You're being a real butthead, Knux!" he complained. Knuckles threw his fist and gave Sonic the right hook. The hedgehog went sprawling. "How DARE you take MY EMERALDS, on MY ISLAND, and CALL ME NAMES?" he demanded.   
"THAT'S IT!" Sonic shouted, throwing himself at Knuckles. The two toppled over and had an all-in brawl, much to Tails' horror. But Knuckles, being the better fighter, eventually threw Sonic to the ground, sending the two emerald pieces he had flying.   
"You can get out of my sight, Sonic." Knuckles growled. "Tails too. Both of you.. I want you off my island."   
The echidna didn't notice the liquid seeping out of the grass.. forming itself into a shape.. solidifying and forming body parts.   
"Knu...Knuckles!!" Sonic stammered, horrified.   
"No more talk!" Knuckles retorted.   
"But... behind you!" Tails added.   
"What?" Knux demanded.   
"Knuckles..." Sonic gasped, pointing. "It's grown again!"   
Knuckles spun around, and came face to face with Chaos. He had time to let out half a gasp before the monster sent him flying into a nearby lake. He landed in the water with a splash.   
"Fabulous!" Dr. Robotnik shouted from behind Sonic and Tails. The two turned to find him holding the emerald shards that Sonic dropped. "I knew I would gain an advantage from following that echidna here!"   
"Oh Knuckles.." Sonic sighed, shaking his head.   
"WHAT?" Knux asked, pulling himself out of the lake.   
"You were tricked again!" Sonic replied.   
"Like you WEREN'T?" Knux asked.   
Robotnik just laughed, and admired the emeralds. "You guys are too easy!" he complained. "First come first served, they say! And you three serve me better than you think!"   
He held the emeralds up. "Chaos!" he called. "Here, Chaos!" The giant gorilla-like monster stormed over to Robotnik, his feet making a loud splat whenever they hit the ground. He grabbed both emeralds and swallowed them in one gulp. They glowed brighter than ever before, and once again, Chaos began to transform. "PREPARE FOR CHAOS FOUR!" he yelled gluggily, before cracking up into fits of horrendous laughter. His entire body grew longer and thinner.. more prongs grew out of his head.. his arms changed shape into blade-like appendages.. his feet grew together and flattened out into one long, flat tail, and one huge fin grew out of his back. He snarled deeply as the glow faded into four distinct points of light in his abdomen.   
Sonic gulped. "Like something out of a Spielburg movie.." he stammered. Robotnik laughed. "SICK 'EM, JAWS!" he commanded. Chaos' arms grew into tentacles, and he threw Sonic, Tails and Knuckles into the lake.. then jumped in himself. 

Sonic remembered the orca whale the instant he saw Chaos dive into the water with him. "I hate water!" he complained. "And I hate Chaos Liquid!" Chaos, when underwater, looked the same as the water did. The only difference was that he was a little thicker, and distorted the water, like a glob of transparent oil underwater. The three were huddled in the center of the lake, being circled by Chaos. He was closing in on them. Knuckles, thinking quickly, jumped out of the water and began to glide. Chaos, afraid of Knuckles escaping, came out of the water to catch him. As soon as his head showed, Sonic slammed into it with a spindash. Globs of Chaos flew off in every direction, and came together again in the center of the lake, where he was attacked by Sonic and Tails.   
Meanwhile, Robotnik was watching the skies. His airship, piloted by Mecha, could be seen approaching from the clouds. "Right on time.." he said to himself.   
Chaos didn't seem to be a match for all three of his attackers at once. As soon as he would attack, they would be one step ahead of him. He vanished under the water, while Sonic, Knux and Tails waited nervously for something to happen. The sun was blocked out by something, and a shadow passed over the lake. The three looked up, and saw something massive flying close to the ground.   
Sonic gasped. "Is that... the Chichi Bobo?"   
"Aw, no!" Knuckles replied. "It's just Robotnik's dumb egg-whatever ship."   
"Behold, my floating masterpiece!" Robotnik shouted "The Egg Carrier!" "It's not your masterpiece, you fat idiot!" Knuckles shouted "You ripped it off some aliens when they had their backs turned!"   
"Details!" Robotnik replied. "It can still knock you insignificant pests head-over-heels! But even it is weak compared to the power of Chaos!"   
"We just splattered your power of Chaos all over the bottom of the lake!" Sonic shouted back.   
"He is not yet complete!" Robotnik replied. "CHAOS!"   
A huge puddle dribbled out of the lake, and towards Robotnik.   
"I have yet to unleash his true power!" he chuckled. "But when I do.... BEWARE!"   
He gave the signal, and the Egg Carrier shot down a beam to carry them up.   
"ADIOU!" Robotnik saluted. "Until we meet again, my friends!"   
With that, both Robotnik and Chaos were gone, and the Egg Carrier silently blasted away.   
"We are getting nowhere.." Sonic grumbled. "Every emerald we've collected has been stolen again and fed into that thing."   
"Well lets not let him get away!" Tails replied. "We can go back to the Great Forest and take the Tornado to follow him!"   
"You guys go.." Knuckles said. "I have some unfinished business to take care of."   
"Sure, Knux!" Sonic replied. "We'll take care of Robotnik!"   
"Okay... just don't come back here again, alright?" Knux asked. "I'm going to be gone."   
Sonic shrugged. "We won't need to!" he replied.   
"Good." Knuckles said. And with that, they both went their seperate ways again. 

"Big! The frog.. is not.. HERE!" Streak yelled. "Now, come on, why are you really so desperate to find this thing?"   
"He's my friend!" Big argued. "He's ALWAYS been my friend! For years! And now he's sick!"   
"Sick?" Streak asked.   
"Yeah!" Big replied. "He's grown some kind 'a tail! And he's never avoided me before!"   
"Maybe he's just turning into some other kind of lizard!" Streak complained.   
"A frog isn't a lizard!" Big corrected. "It's an amphibian! Like axolotls and salamanders!"   
"Alright alright, Professor!" Streak replied. He looked around the streets of Station Square. "Hey.. what's that?" he asked.   
"What?" Big asked.   
"That!" Streak replied, pointing. Hidden in a dark corner was something large and round.   
"I dunno..!" Big replied, curiously. The two cats walked over to it. It was hard and sticky, and throbbing a little.   
"It's kinda creepy!" Big exclaimed.   
"Looks like some kind of...cuccoon!" Streak commented. "That's one flipping huge caterpillar, I can tell 'ya!"   
The strange throbbing cuccoon suddenly began to move... the shell was   
melting away. What was inside it began to reveal itself. It was green.. it had rabbit's ears, the paws of some kind of squirrel, and, stranger still, appeared to be made out of water. It stepped out of the cuccoon and looked around.   
"What the heck IS it?" Streak whispered. "I've never seen an animal like that in my life!"   
Suddenly, the creature turned to him, and jumped onto his face! Streak thrashed around with the thing grappling onto his head, and then let out an electric shock. Taken by surprise, the creature fell off, and landed face down in the pavement. Streak noticed something new about it... It had a small purple tail sticking out of its rear.. bent into the shape of a lightning bolt.   
"It mimiced my tail!" Streak gasped. "What the heck is it?"   
The creature got up and walked away, further into the dark crevice. Streak could see several large eggs lining the area.   
"I don't know what laid these..." he said. "But there's something awfully spooky going on." 

"Sonic! Wait here for a second!" Tails said, before vanishing into the hangar. Sonic stood outside and shrugged. There was a loud noise from within the building.   
"What is he up to?" Sonic thought.   
Suddenly, all the trees between the hangar and the edge of the cliff parted, leaving a long path.. and the ground itself split apart, revealing a massive runway! Sonic was beside himself as the hangar door opened, and Tails was seated in the Tornado, ready for takeoff.   
"Tails! How did you do that?" Sonic asked, shocked.   
"It was built-in to the hangar!" Tails replied. "I just never showed anybody before!" He patted the top wing of the biplane. "Hop on!" he said. "Just like old times!"   
"Are you sure this thing is safe after the crash?" Sonic asked.   
"It doesn't have an emerald power supply, but I think it should work just dandy!" Tails replied.   
"Well, okay!" Sonic said, jumping onto the wing. 

Then they were off! They caught up to the Egg Carrier in no time, which had defense systems on the ready.   
"We'll pass over once, then double back and land on it!" Tails announced.   
"Sure thing!" Sonic replied. The plane whizzed past wave after wave of attacking missiles and rockets. When they were close enough to the ship, they opened fire on the missile launchers and attack pods.   
"YAHOO!" screamed Sonic as they barrel-rolled alongside the Egg Carrier. More missiles were released, narrowly missing them, and they increased speed, shooting ahead of the giant craft.   
"That is one huge ship!" Sonic announced. "Lets circle back and put it out of commission, Tails!"   
"Sure thing, Sonic!" 

Doctor Robotnik watched the plane on his view screen in anger. "Mecha.." he ordered. His robot co-pilot looked at him in reply.   
"Do you remember the big red button we tested during a test flight?" Robotnik asked him.   
"Yes.." Mecha replied.   
"Push the big red button, Mecha." 

The little biplane circled back, and Tails pulled up on the joystick to level it. "Ready Sonic?" he asked.   
"Ready as I'll ever be!" Sonic replied.   
The pointed nose of the Egg Carrier split in half as they headed towards it, revealing a spinning circular contraption which extended, and began to generate little zaps of electricity, which grew after time, and started making a loud whirring noise.   
"What's it doing?" Sonic asked, growing nervous.   
"I dunno, Sonic!" replied Tails. There was a crackling sound on the two-way radio. Tails took one hand off the joystick to answer it.   
"Yo?" he said.   
"Merry Christmas." came Robotnik's sinister voice from the other end. Sonic looked up to see the biggest beam he had ever seen in his life heading straight for his head. He jumped to the left just as the Tornado veered to the right. The beam collided with its right wing, sending it spiralling out of control and hurling Tails from the cockpit. Sonic flew in one direction, Tails flew in the other direction, and the Tornado went straight down the center in an inevidable collision course with the ground. 

Sonic landed with a loud thump in the sand. Head-first. After a while, he pulled himself out of the sand and tried to shake himself off. "Tails? Tails?" he called, before things came into focus. There was an inquisitive little girl fox standing beside him. "You're not who I'm looking for!" he realised. "Where'd Tails go? I hope he's okay..." He looked around and sighed. "I'd better go find him.. hope he's not hurt.."   
It was nightfall again.. This night, the city was ablaze with activity, and all the Twinkle Park casinos and theme parks were opening. Sonic briefly wondered if Tails was inside one of them, when he saw a familiar figure.. Amy!   
"HEY AMY!" Sonic shouted over the noise of the crowds of people. Amy Rose turned around.. she was holding some kind of wounded bird. "Hey Sonic!" she called back, waving. Sonic walked up to her. "Have you seen Tails?" he asked.   
"Tails? No.. why?" Amy replied.   
"We were chasing after the Egg Carrier and it shot us down." Sonic blurted out.   
"Egg Carrier? What's that, a poultry shipment?" Amy asked.   
"No, it's Robotnik's new ship.." Sonic replied. "We wanted to get to it so we could stop Ivo from feeding Chaos into something unstoppable." Amy laughed. "Sonic, what are you talking about?" she asked.   
Sonic sighed. "Amy.. there's something seriously going down, and I'm not kidding. You know Robotnik is up to something, right? We worked that out before, when we went to Robotropolis on recon... well, now I know what it is."   
"What?" Amy asked.   
"A monster." Sonic replied. "It calls itself 'Chaos'. It's probably even eviller than Robotnik himself.. and every time Robotnik boosts its power, it grows.."   
He looked into Amy's eyes for a minute. "Aww, don't worry Amy.. I don't wanna drag you into this." he said at last.   
"I'd love to help.." Amy admitted "But I've kinda got problems of my own right now. I've gotta find a home for this bird, here, and get away from this robot who wants to steal it.."   
"Huh? Robot?" Sonic asked.   
"Yeah... some really creepy looking robot has been chasing me. I'm sure he's after this bird, because it fell off one of Robotnik's ships.."   
"That'd be the Egg Carrier." Sonic replied.   
"On a lighter note, have you ever been to one of the Twinkle Park theme parks?" Amy asked.   
"Nope.." Sonic replied.   
"Wanna go?" Amy offered. "You haven't lived until you've been there!"   
"Aw, I dunno, I really should find Tails.." Sonic replied.   
"Tails can take care of himself, I'm sure." Amy replied with a smile. "Let him be independant."   
"I haven't any cash, either.. Sonic replied."   
"I'll shout you!" Amy offered. "Besides, there's a special on.. 'cute couples' get a discount."   
"You think we'll be judged as 'cute'?" Sonic asked, jokingly.   
Amy laughed. "Let's go!" she said.   
From the shadows, Zero Tolerance grinned evilly. "The cat's in the bag!" he declared. 

Sonic and Amy spent an hour or so in Twinkle Park's biggest amusement center, but it was easy to get lost in the crowds. After a while, Sonic realised that they had been completely seperated.   
"Oh great, Sonic, great." he said to himself. "First you lose Tails, now you lose Amy. You're on a roll!"   
He found a door marked "Twinkle Circuit".   
"Huh? What's that?" he asked. "Maybe she's in there?" 

*** 

"What's your name?" asked the fox, wiping his eyes. "Sonic." replied Sonic. "Sonic Hedgehog. What's yours?" "Miles." replied the fox. "Miles Prower. Although my friends call me Tails." "Why's that?" asked Sonic. Miles stood up. He had not one, but _two_ tails attached to his rear end. Sonic nearly jumped out of his skin! "Holy shemoli!" he exclaimed. "How'd that happen?" Tails began to sob again. "I know.. I'm a freak." he said. Sonic grinned. "Think so?" he asked. "Ever seen a hedgehog with fused spines and blue skin?" Tails giggled. "Guess not!" "We're just special." Sonic reassured him. "And you wanna know something else?" "What?" Tails asked. Sonic stood up, and ran down through Knothole at 200km/h! Then he ran back, and sat down. "NEAT-O!" Tails yelled. "I can do something, too!" He suddenly began to spin his tails like a rotor blade. And he _actually took off_ like a helicopter! Sonic, and a few other villagers, just stared, until Tails sat back down. "COO-OO-OOL!" Sonic exclaimed. "Wow, you've got quite a few tricks up your sleeve!" Tails giggled. "You too!" "I can tell we're both going to enjoy living here!" said Sonic. 

Then Tails woke up, and realised he was dreaming. A very vivid dream, about when he and Sonic had first met. Since then, they had gone just about everywhere together.   
"Wow.. that dream brought back memories." Tails exclaimed. "I owe so much to Sonic.." he realised. Apon looking around, he noticed he was in the forest. He had used his tails and the trees as a fall breaker, but he still hit hard enough to pass out. He shook his head to wake himself up. "I wonder where Sonic landed?" he asked. "I think I'd better find my way back to familiar territory before anything else."   
He walked for what seemed like ages, before he noticed something that caught his eye.   
"WOW!" he exclaimed, looking at a glowing green gem. "A Master Emerald fragment! But what's it doing here?"   
He ran up to the gem, but its glow became so intense that he had to block his eyes. When he opened them again, he was standing in a strange village. "Huh?" he mumbled in confusion. "I thought I was in the jungle!" He walked through the strange place, and was faced with a massive temple! At the base, was a girl. She seemed to be deep in thought. What was strange about this place, despite the fact it came out of nowhere, was that everybody was an echidna!   
"The servers are the seven Chaos Emeralds.." she was saying. She looked up and noticed Tails standing there. "Oh, hello friend!" she greeted him.   
"A visitor to the village! We don't get many non-echidnas in these parts.."   
"What were you saying before?" Tails asked, interested.   
"Something my grandmother taught me." the echidna replied. "The servers are the seven Xnaoo. The controller is the one who unifies the Xnaoo. Since Xnaoo and Chaos mean the same, I was just saying that instead.. it's silly, really." She giggled. "What's your name?" she asked. "I'm Tikal."   
"I'm Tails!" Tails replied.   
"Croooo-oooak."   
"What?" Tails asked in surprise."   
"Rrribbit."   
The fox realised he was staring down at a frog. And he was back in the jungle again. He shook his head. "Was I just dreaming?" he asked the frog. The animal croaked in reply. Tails noticed that the frog had a strangely long tail growing out his back.   
"FROGGY!" came a yell. Tails looked up just in time to see a gigantic blue cat leaping through the air towards him! He fell backwards, and the cat landed in front of him. The frog croaked and hopped away. The cat cursed and ran off.   
"Weird!" Tails exclaimed. Then he noticed a familiar face running towards him! It was another cat.. Streak! He stopped in front of Tails.   
"Hey, Tails!" he greeted. "What a surprise!"   
"Streak!" Tails replied. "What are you doing here?"   
"Running after Big." Streak replied. "He's my cousin. Would you believe it? He's been chasing that darn frog all over the countryside!" Tails laughed. "Hey, have you seen Sonic?" he asked.   
"Nope.." Streak replied. "Sorry. Why, you lost?"   
"Kind of.." Tails replied.   
"Me too!" Streak laughed. "Hey, you can come along on this wild frog chase too, if you like!"   
"Naw, I'd better not." Tails replied. "I have to find my way back to the hangar and go help Sonic."   
"Okaly-dokaly!" Streak saluted. "I gotta go catch up.. be seeing 'ya!"   
"Bye!" Tails replied. The cat ran into the forest, and Tails bent over and picked up the emerald shard.   
"Now.." he said. "I'll get to the hangar and use one of the other planes to look for Sonic. Robotnik, here I come!" 

Amy sighed. "Where'd Sonic go?" she asked herself. She wandered around Twinkle Park, looking for him. "Ugh.. so many crowds in this place! You'll stick with me, won't you, birdie!" She tripped over something, and almost fell over. "What was THAT?" she asked. She bent over, and picked up a glowing green emerald. It looked like it was broken off from something bigger. "Weird!" she said, putting it in her pocket. Suddenly a hand dropped on her shoulder. She turned around, and saw the black robot standing there, grinning evilly. She dropped back and nearly fell over.   
"Nice to see you too!" the robot declared.   
"Ugh, you stupid persistant mutant coffee machine!" Amy shouted. The robot looked surprised. "THAT'S a new one!" he declared. "I'd much prefer it if you call me 'Zero', girlie, it'll save some time.. less to get your tongue around."   
"Zero, huh?" Amy asked. "Zero Intelligence, more like it!"   
She turned and bolted, the bird following suit. Zero shook his head.   
"She just won't learn.." he said. "I'll have to do this.. the hard and painful way."   
He walked through the crowds, and disappeared into the darkness. 

Streak and Big stood at the entrance to Emerald Coast. Inside, they could see the frog hopping around, madly.   
"What is WRONG with it?" Streak asked.   
"He's sick!" Big insisted. "I gotta help him!" The cat trundled into the beach. "Then can we go home?" Streak called, running after him. 

E-102 Gamma walked across the beach. People looked at him and gasped, as they always did, but Gamma was unfazed. His mission, for over twelve hours now, was to capture the tailed frog that he had been tracking. He walked for ages across the sand, until he saw it.. plain as day! It hopped happily on the sand. Gamma was about to approach it, when two figures appeared... two cats.   
"Hey Big! Look, there's the frog!" one of them yelled.   
"FROGGY!" the other shouted. The cats ran after the frog, which hopped away, evading them. Gamma followed in persuit. 

"GOTCHA!" Streak shouted. He held the squirming frog in both hands. "Here you go, Big! One insane little tailed amphibian!" "Awww, Froggy!" Big exclaimed happily. "Am I glad I finally caught you, buddy! I missed you!"   
"Here ya go, take the thing.." Streak insisted, holding the frog out. A red robot blasted past and grabbed it. Streak still had his hands held out, and his jaw open.   
"I don't believe this." he stated.   
"Oh no, he's got my buddy!" Big shouted.   
"Look, you!" Streak yelled at the robot. "We have been chasing that dumb frog all over the city... my small minded cousin here isn't going to let up until we catch it, so maybe, if you didn't mind, you could let me have it?"   
"I cannot." the robot replied.   
"Why the hell not?" Streak asked.   
"It is my mission to recover this frog." the robot said, turning around and starting his rocket pack.   
"No! COME BACK! What mission?" Streak shouted.   
"We have to follow him and get Froggy back!" Big shouted, running after.   
"How did I guess?" Streak asked, starting to persue. 

Knuckles was searching his island for any fragments of emerald Robotnik might have missed when he ransacked it. He had recovered surprisingly many, and left all the emeralds in a stack until he could find a way to fuse them. He was searching a temple in Marble Gardens, when suddenly a bright light came over him. He shielded his eyes and waited for it to pass over. When it didn't, he opened his eyes and realised he was staring at the sun. But he was inside a temple! When he looked around, he realised he had no idea where he was. He was standing before some kind of altar, with a huge emerald of some kind on top of it. Suddenly he recognised it.. the Havoc Gem!   
"Am I on the Chaos Isle?" he asked. "What's going on? Where am I?" He noticed another echidna standing there.. Tikal!   
"Please!" she begged the Havoc Gem. "You have to help us! I know you have before... when we did combat with that horrendous monster, Xnaoo!" Knuckles pondered what she said... Xnaoo.. in the old echidna language, that meant Chaos!   
"You gave us the Xnaoo Emeralds!" Tikal recalled. "And when six of us stood in a circle with them and held up the controller in the center, it trapped the creature inside! I know it's asking a lot, but my father will soon do combat with the gods, and I fear what may happen to us! To I beg you... as our protector... help us now!"   
Tikal fell on her knees and began to sob. Knuckles walked up to comfort her, but only ended up hugging the dirt. He was in front of the pile of emerald shards again. No Havoc Gem, no Tikal.   
"Unggghh..." Knux moaned. "This is beginning to blow my mind!" He dropped the remaining emeralds on the pile and waited. Nothing would happen, but he was a very hopeful echidna. After a while, he let out a long sigh. "Who am I kidding.. It's still incomplete. If I'm gonna fix this thing up, I'm gonna have to reach into Chaos' guts and pull the shards out myself."   
There was an uneasy silence, then he lifted his head and clenched his fist. "Maybe that's exactly what I'm going to do!" he said. "Chaos is on the Egg Carrier, so that's where I'll go! I just need a way of finding it..."   
At that very moment, something red streaked past. An E-101 robot? It had a large frog tucked under one arm, as it landed.   
"Gamma reporting... come in Master Robotnik.." he said. "I have aquired the frog. Permission to board Egg Carrier?"   
"Since when does an E-101 get this far away from Robotropolis?" Knux thought to himself. Then he had another thought. "If he's boarding the Egg Carrier... I can follow him there!" He grinned devilishly. "Watch out Chaos... now you've messed with Knuckles the Echidna!" 

CHAPTER FOUR: CHAOS SIX 

Amy Rose quietly walked down the streets of Station Square. There were no people around.. it was almost morning. She yawned. "I didn't get any sleep last night.." she commented. "I hope Sonic found his way out okay.." The bird started circling her head and tweeting madly.   
"Hey.. what's wrong, birdie?" Amy asked. She heard a sound behind her.. she turned, and saw a stone skipping down the footpath, like somebody had just kicked it. It hit the wall of a building and rolled to a stop.   
"...what?" Amy asked, walking up to the stone. She picked it up. The bird was still going crazy. Another sound behind her.. a strange clanging. She turned around. Silence.   
"Maybe we should go, huh?" she asked the bird. Suddenly, something grabbed her arm. "Why not STAY A WHILE?" somebody asked.   
Zero appeared right in front of her!   
"WHAT TH...?" she exclaimed, shocked.   
"Cloaking device.." Zero growled. "Just intalled. I've searched the world for spare parts! You thought I'd be easy to evade?"   
"GET LOST!" Amy screamed, breaking the robot's grip. She ran inside a factory building and slammed the metal roller-door, just as she heard Zero run into it from the other side.   
"We'll be safe here..." she told the bird, panting.   
There was a noise on the other side. Kind of a whirring. Then, there was the sound of screeching metal. With a flash of sparks, a small jigsaw-blade poked through the door just beside her head, and began to cut through it.   
"Or not!" Amy exclaimed. "Come on!"   
The girl and the bird ran up the stairs as fast as they could. They spiralled around and around.. floor after floor whizzing past. Eventually, Amy came to the end of the line.. a door marked 'rooftop'. She opened it, and stepped out. She was on the roof of the building. She walked right up to the edge. It was a long way down.   
"We're trapped." she told the bird, sadly. "How will we get down?"   
"You could always jump!" Zero said from behind her. She spun around, shocked. "Bbbb--bu-but HOW?" she stammered.   
"Elevator, kiddo." Zero replied. Now, where were we? Oh yes... I was about to capture you. Don't try to escape this time, you're caught between a rock and a hard place! I can guarantee you that being captured by me won't hurt anywhere near as much as your current alternative..."   
Amy looked down at the cars below. "I'll never let you take birdie!" she warned.   
"Birdie?" Zero asked. "Who wants birdie? There's a perfectly good hedgehog right here!"   
"What??" Amy asked, shocked. "I thought.. I thought you were after this bird!"   
"After the bird?" Zero asked. "I don't think Sonic's gonna risk his life for a bird!"   
"What about Sonic?" Amy demanded.   
"You'll see soon enough!" Zero replied, impatiently. "Now, come down quietly!"   
Amy sighed, and stepped down from the ledge.   
But then she tripped.   
And fell.   
The world below came speeding up towards her.   
Her life flashed before her eyes.   
Zero ran up to the ledge, and looked down. Amy was falling to her death. Zero looked up, and shot his arms out to his sides. He bent his knees once, twice, then dived off the roof like an Olympian. The robot sped towards Amy quickly. She was falling slower than he. He caught up to her in mid air, grabbed her around the waist, and operated a massive jetpack on his back. About a split second before impact, they pulled up and rocketed through the air.. the bird frantically flying behind, trying to keep up. 

Knuckles stared up at the huge Egg Carrier vessel. It was docked on the ground.. waiting for the strange robot to come aboard. The robot pressed a button, and an eerie door opened in the side of the craft, letting it in. As soon as the door closed, Knuckles did the same. And when he was inside, he stowed away, until the massive ship lifted off...   
Nearby, another two characters hid in the bushes.   
"Wasn't that Knuckles the Echidna?" Streak asked.   
"Froggy's inside that big thing!" Big replied, ignoring his cousin. Streak looked at the side of the ship... it was massive. And there was a picture of Robotnik's face on it. Streak gasped deeply. "This thing belongs to ROBOTNIK!" he exclaimed.   
"Who?" Big asked.   
"Robotnik!" Streak replied. "Doctor Robotnik, he's a big... fat... mad scientist. He's a very, very bad man, Big! If we go inside there, he'll torture us, then he'll kill us, Big, because he's a very, very, very bad man! Now, I know you want your frog back, but it's GONE, Big.. it's GONE. I'm SORRY, I really am! But we've been following that thing around for ages now, I'm tired, I'm hungry, lets just go home, huh? We can fry up a couple of fish.."   
"You didn't have to come along!" Big pointed out. "I Din't ask you to follow me, you did it yourself!"   
"I _HAVE_ TO FOLLOW YOU!" Streak shouted. "Because, if I DON'T follow you, you'll walk around like a MINDLESS LEMMING, and get yourself KILLED!" "I ain't stupid!" Big protested. "I ain't smart, but I ain't stupid! You can stay 'ere if you want, but I'm gonna get on that thing an' find my friend!"   
The cat turned and walked towards the ship.   
"Okay Big... look... I'm sorry." Streak admitted. "But this is Robotnik! He'll tear you limb from limb! I worry about you, cuz! Please, just.. just turn around, come back... we'll go fishing, huh?" There was an uneasy silence, then Big turned and walked back. "Oh alright!" he gave in. "Lets go!"   
"YEAH!" Streak shouted in triumph. "Lets go home!"   
"Hey, what's that?" Big asked, pointing up.   
Streak looked up. "What?" he asked. "I can see a bird... it's just a crow, though! What am I looking at, Big? Big?"   
The cat turned to see the door of the huge ship closing behind his cousin.   
"BIG!!" he screamed. "GAAH! He's gone inside! What do I do??"   
He ran right up to the door, and stared at it. "Robotnik.." he muttered. "I can't believe I'm doing this."   
He pressed the button, and the door opened. He took a deep breath.   
"I..... am a tool." he declared, walking inside. The door closed with a clatter, as the engines started up. 

Sonic, having searched Twinkle Circuit, had somehow found his way to Speed Highway. He zipped around, narrowly missing several cars, until he found a place to rest.   
"Now what?" he asked. "I can't find Amy or Tails.. I can't get to the Egg Carrier.."   
"Well, if you have nothing to do, I have some suggestions.." came an evil voice from above. Sonic looked up, and saw Amy.. with a gun to her head.. her bird circling around madly. Her captor? None other than Zero Tolerance.   
"ZERO!" Sonic exclaimed, shocked. "So you DID survive!"   
"I survived alright!" Zero snapped back. "Save a few broken bones.. my armor absorbed most of the shock. And hey! Look who I managed to come across!" he chuckled.   
"No... not you!" Sonic yelled with rage. "You sure picked a crappy time to start strutting around the place again!"   
"SHUT UP!" Zero shouted. "In case you haven't noticed, I have a friend of yours hostage!"   
"Drop her, Zero.. she's not worth as much to you if you're knocked off that balcony by me with a broken skull!"   
"Ho HO! We shall see!" Zero declared. "If you want her back, you're going to have to battle me! TO THE DEATH! We'll see who gets broken by all this!"   
"Amy, are you alright?" Sonic asked. Amy nodded sadly.   
"You're ignoring my offer!" Zero replied. "Did you hear me, you little blue idiot? I challanged you.. no, I DARED you to fight me! Are you going to accept? Or am I going to have to blow this little girl's head away? 'Cos I really don't wanna have to do that, Sonic.. look at her, she has her whole life ahead of her... are you going to take that away from her Sonic?"   
"Don't, Sonic!" Amy warned. "He's got guns and everything! You're no match.."   
"I accept, Zero Brains!" Sonic shouted.   
"Excellent!" Zero applauded. "And that's TOLERANCE, Sonic, I didn't go off and think up a perfectly good evil name to have it ridiculed by a little freak like you! Now, run off into the forest... don't try and find me, believe me, I'll find YOU!"   
With an evil cackle, Zero and Amy disappeared into the building, with Sonic blinded with rage.   
"Sure! Throw every brainless villain in the world into this situation!" he shouted. "I can't BELIEVE this! I think I have too many enemies.." 

Tails opened the hangar door, revealing a strange looking biplane.. looking quite dusty.   
"All tests positive!" Tails announced. "It works like a charm.. I dub thee.. Tornado 2!"   
He smiled, and wanted desperately to dust it off and give it a full wash and paint job.. but there wasn't quite enough time. The old plane would just have to do as it was. Tails jumped into the cockpit and started the engine.   
"It's time!" he announced. "Off we go, Tornado 2! Off to find Sonic and finish what we started!" 

In the Egg Carrier, Robotnik was walking down the main corridor. "The frog.. at last!" he announced. "Now.. I'll wait for just a little bit before I give it to Chaos.. I have things to do first, and I don't want his power wasted before I can use it on Station Square!"   
He threw open a door, and dozens of strange blue things tumbled on top of him!   
"YAAAARGH!" he yelled, thrashing. When he picked himself up, he saw the scene properly. Inside the room, in the center, was the giant mako-shark-shaped Chaos monster. And surrounding him were dozens of little baby water droplets! And un-hatched eggs! Robotnik's first thought was "He's a SHE!", but that didn't really make sense.   
"Chaos... what the hell?" he demanded.   
"Chao." Chaos replied. "Ivo Robotnik! Chaos is acheiving perfection too slowly! The side effect is that Chaos is producing these... small... ssstupid organisms. Chaos must EVOLVE, Ivo Robotnik! Evolve quickly! Acheive perfection so he may serve out your wishes!"   
"Soon, Chaos! Soon.." Robotnik guaranteed. "Try to hold back on creating these little globs of goo, huh?"   
He sweeped all the chao into the room, and closed the door. "Chao." he snorted. "Maybe I can train them to be vicious mercinaries, or something." At that point, Mecha Sonic walked up to him. "Sire.." he said. "I have some interesting news."   
"Out with it." Robotnik replied.   
"Sir, we have re-located the bird which escaped earlier this week, causing you to lose your cargo..."   
"You have?" Robotnik snapped. "WHERE?? That bird must PAY!"   
"Below.." Mecha replied. "Do you wish me to beam it on board?"   
"As soon as possible.." Robotnik growled. 

"Oh, I have waited SO long for this!" Zero announced evilly. "Sonic, prepare to be destroyed!"   
"NO!" Amy shouted.   
Zero turned the gun on her. "SHUT IT, girlie! I don't need you any more! Don't force me to dispose of you!"   
Amy dropped back.   
"Now, where was I?" Zero asked, walking up to Sonic. "Oh yes! I was going to DESTROY you!"   
"Not gonna happen!" Sonic replied, defensively.   
"Prepare to die!" Zero announced.   
At that moment, Amy and her bird bolted towards Zero and attacked him. Zero quickly activated his rocket pack and blasted over them, coming to land behind them. He raised his gun.   
"I waaaarned yooou!" he growled.   
He was interrupted by something blocking out the sun. Zero, the bird, Amy and Sonic all looked up, forgetting what they were doing. The Egg Carrier! It was so silent that nobody heard it coming!   
"What the hell is THAT thing?" Zero demanded. The Carrier stopped directly above them, opened some kind of hole, and shot a beam down to the ground!   
"GAH!" Zero shouted as he, Amy and the little bird were sucked into the ship.   
"NO!" Sonic shouted. But he was too late. He got there just as the hole closed up, and the Egg Carrier began to move again.   
"OH NO!" Sonic cursed. "I've lost her AGAIN!" He frowned and looked at which direction they were heading. The ship was going towards the mountains.   
"I'm not gonna let egg-man escape THIS time!" Sonic announced. "Watch out Robotnik! This time it's PERSONAL!" 

Zero and Amy stood in a dark, dingey corridor. The bird was flying around, cracking up.   
"Wha?" Zero asked. "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Gah, I'll throttle whoever runs this ship!"   
He looked at a mural on the wall... a picture of Robotnik's face.   
"Well well well!" Zero commented. "Robotnik! Haven't seen HIS smiling face in a while!"   
"Where.. are we?" Amy asked. "Are we in that big ship? The one you fell out of, birdie?"   
"Geez, will you stop talking to that dumb bird?" Zero asked. "It can't understand you or talk back or anything."   
"Wheras you talk TOO much." Amy replied, glumly.   
A group of robots stepped out of the shadows. "Well well well..." a blue one said. "If it isn't three more additions to Robotnik's happy prisoner family."   
"You are prisoners of war, soldiers!" a yellowy orange one said.   
"Follow us! You will not speak unless spoken to!"   
"Sorry, my mindless metal comerades!" Zero exclaimed, using his rocket pack to blast to the roof. "Can't stick around! I'll be seein' you!"   
"GET BACK HERE SOLDIER!" the yellow robot raged. "Very well.. he will be aquired later. You, civilian! Come with us!"   
Amy was led off into a dirty jail cell. 

"Gamma..." Robotnik called. E-102 Gamma approached him.   
"I have a little job for you." Robotnik announced. "Go through to the dungeon. There is a girl in one of the cells, and she has a bird with her. Do not worry about the girl just yet, just get me that bird!"   
"Aye aye, sir." Gamma droned in reply. He strided down the halls of the Egg Carrier, and came to a door. He opened it just a crack, and peered inside. Packbell was in there, with Beta.   
"Testing operations..." Packbell said. "You're making an excellent recovery, Beta!"   
Gamma closed the door. "This is the wrong room." he announced to nobody in particular. Then he headed down the hall once again. 

Amy sat, crying. The bird chirped sadly.   
Outside the cell, a robot approached. A red robot. He looked at the girl through the bars. Amy looked at him with spite. "What do you want?" she demanded.   
"The bird..." the robot replied.   
"Well, you can't have him. Go away." Amy replied.   
The robot stood there for a moment. "I have data on you." he said.   
"Excuse me?" Amy asked.   
"I have met you. During the attack on New Knothole."   
Amy remembered. "Yes.." she replied. "Yeah, you.. spared my life!"   
"I am sorry you were captured. You had your life ahead of you."   
"So, saving me was just a one-off occurance, huh?" Amy asked.   
"Please, quietly hand over the bird." the robot insisted.   
"No!" Amy snapped.   
"Why not?" the robot asked.   
Amy just started to cry.   
"Why do you cry?" the robot asked.   
"I'm never going to see my friends again.." Amy sobbed. "Sonic.. the Freedom Fighters.."   
"Does not compute." the robot admitted.   
"You're just a dumb robot, what do you know?" Amy asked. "You only know what's programmed into you. You've never lost somebody you care about, and you'll never need to."   
There was a long silence, and then the robot said "I have."   
"What?" Amy asked, looking up. "Who could YOU have lost?"   
"My sibling." the robot replied. "My brother. E-102 Beta. I was forced to fight him. He was damaged. He is not the same. I miss him. He would not miss me, but I miss him."   
Amy walked up to the robot. "I'm.. sorry." she admitted. At that moment, the bird flew through the bars, and hovered just in front of the robot's head!   
"Birdie! No!" Amy shouted. But the robot made no attempt to grab it. They just stayed.. staring at each other.   
"Birds.." the robot said.   
Memories flooded back to him. His mother was a bird.. he missed her. He missed her so badly. He wanted to cry, but his robot body wouldn't let him.. He shook the memories away. "Go." he said.   
"Huh?" Amy asked.   
"Go." the robot replied, pushing a button which opened the jail doors. "Escape."   
Amy walked out into the corridor. "You're not like the other robots, are you?" she asked. "What's your name?"   
"I am called E-102 Gamma." the robot replied. "Go. It is dangerous here. Take the bird. We will be back at Robotropolis in due time."   
"Thank you so much!" Amy replied, tears welling up in her eyes.   
"You are happy and yet you cry again." Gamma stated. "Insufficiant data. I do not understand."   
"Don't worry, Gamma!" Amy called. "You will always have a place in my heart!"   
With that, she left. 

"Where are we?" Streak demanded. "We're LOST! THAT"S where we are!"   
"Hot.. Shelter.." Big read.   
"Yeah, it's hot alright!" Streak replied, wiping his brow.   
There was a clanging behind them. The two cats turned to see an E-101 robot walking up to them. "Who are you?" it demanded.   
"Where's Froggy?" Big demanded back.   
There was a long silence.   
"Yeah, uh.. HI!" Streak greeted. "I'm Streak, and this here is Big! Um.. we're just here, looking for a frog, you see.. he's about.. yay high, and... oh, yay long... It has a tail, so it's easy to...   
The robot grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the wall. "INTRUDERS!" it shouted.   
"No!" Streak yelled back. "Just... uh... visitors!"   
"INTRUDERS." the robot repeated, squeezing his hand around the cat's neck. In self defence, Streak let rip an enormous electric charge. The robot blew a circuit, and fell backwards. An alarm went off, followed by another. Soon, the whole hot shelter was ablaze with alarms. "Oh no oh no oh no!" Streak stammered. "Robotnik's gonna capture us and then he's gonna torture us and throw us overboard into the ocean or something where we'll be eaten by sharks and whales and pirhannas and... sea urchins and whatever else and we'll rot and never see the sun again and I DON'T WANNA DIE!"   
"Get a hold o' yerself, good buddy!" Big urged.   
Streak looked up at him. "Why are you always so carefree, Big?" he asked.   
"It's just my nature, cuz!" Big replied. "Now cheer up.. we're gonna go find Froggy, and then we can all go home and fish together!"   
"Fish.." Streak snickered. "But Big... this is my first time facing Robotnik without about fifty others to back me up!"   
"You have awesome powers, good buddy!" Big replied. "You an' me an' Froggy can take on all these nasty robots ourselves!" He began to sing. "Oh, it's a windy and sunny day! I can hear the faint sound of distant waves.."   
Streak smiled and began to sing too. "The past weeks have been going by so fast, it's all the same, the bright sky and shining sun.."   
"I have a feeling it's gonna be a fun daaay!"   
"Hey, big guy!"   
"Hey, little guy!"   
"Can you tell me who came first?"   
"Sorry, but I don't know!"   
"We're simply naturaaal!"   
They both laughed. "Sure, we can do this!" Streak announced. "Let's get 'em, big guy!"   
"Sure thing, little guy!"   
And they ran off to find the missing frog. 

Sonic chased Robotnik's Egg Carrier through the mountains all day, and now a storm was starting to form in the sky. The problem was - he was running out of mountains. He got to the top of the highest one, and looked at the Egg Carrier just flying away from the area. "It's no use.." he sighed. "I just can't catch it. I'm gonna have to find another way...   
He heard the sound of a small plane above him. He looked up.. and to his relief.. TAILS! He was in a new plane, heading straight for the mountains.   
"TAILS!" Sonic yelled, waving both arms. Tails spotted him, and moved the plane around towards him.   
"I'm so glad you're okay!" Sonic announced, grinning.   
"Sure thing, Sonic!" Tails replied. "Now, hop in! We've got an Egg Carrier to catch!" 

So they were off once again. Sonic on the wing, Tails at the controls. They dodged the Carrier's defenses, and shot parts of the hull to pieces with their gunfire. Then they turned to face the Carrier head-on once again. As before, the nozzle opened to reveal a huge weapon.. but this time, Tails wasted no time in opening fire on it. When it shot the massive beam, the plane dodged, and continued its fire. Eventually, there was an explosion, and the nozzle of the ship closed, dragging the blazing firey remains of the weapon inside. Tails blasted the plane over the nose of the ship, did a loop, and came in for a landing on top of it.   
"Uh oh..." Tails said, stabbing a button on the console.   
"What's uh-oh?" Sonic asked.   
Tails stabbed the button again. "Landing gear is jammed." Tails replied morbidly.   
"WHAT??" exclaimed Sonic.   
"We're gonna have to taboggan-land this thing!" Tails announced. "Hold on!"   
Sonic yelled out as the plane's belly scraped along the top of the Egg Carrier. Sparks flew everywhere as Tails tried to control it. Eventually, it stopped dead, and the two both fell out of it.   
"We're here..." Sonic announced. 

"Dangerous fire in sector fourteen!" Mecha announced.   
"Mecha.... WHY are those two idiots on my Egg Carrier?" Robotnik asked, clenching his fists.   
"They were readily prepared this time, sir." Mecha replied. "They disabled the primary weapon."   
"That's it.." Robotnik announced. "Time to show them exactly what this vessel can do! Mecha, I want you to transform this ship into deep space mode!"   
"Might I ask why, sir?" Mecha asked.   
"Because it will enclose the ship into a tight fortress." Robotnik replied. "The only way they can possibly get inside will be through a missile tube into the sky deck, and I seriously doubt their chances of getting through automated security therin. Now, DO IT!" 

There was a loud noise. Knuckles looked up from the sky deck he was stowed away in, and noticed that things were moving. The walls of the deck moved outward, and snapped erect like wings at the side of the Carrier! The sudden exposure to the open sky almost ripped the echidna from the ship, and he decided to get to a safer area. 

"Warning. Warning. Deep space mode activated. For safety reasons, move away from any moving machinary."   
"What's deep space mode?" Tails asked.   
He was soon to find out.   
The entire vessel was changing. Wings on the side formed and snapped into place, and every crevice.. every opening on the top of the ship closed up into a tight seal. The whole ship went through a transformation right before Tails and Sonic's eyes.   
"Whoa!" Tails yelled. "It changed shape! Did you SEE that?"   
"Yeah!" Sonic replied. "This makes it harder to get to Robotnik!"   
"Look!" Tails pointed out. "There are some missile tubes or something... maybe we can get inside before this thing does something else!"   
"Good idea Tails!" Sonic announced. "Lets rock!" 

"Hot Shelter." Amy read. "What's a hot shelter? Looks like the works of the ship!"   
She looked around at all the huge gears around the place. As she was staring, she didn't notice a shadow pass over her.. until it spoke.   
"So, you finally escaped! Took you long enough..."   
Amy turned to see Zero!   
"You again!" she exclaimed. "What are YOU doing here?"   
"What, you think I'd be locked up someplace?" Zero asked. "Thought those idiots caught me? HA! I find that insulting, little missy!"   
"Who are you.." Amy asked in a low voice. "You're after me when I've never met you, and you obviously don't work for Robotnik.."   
"Just a guy with a mission, lady." Zero replied. "And a score to settle. Now, excuse me whilst I grab you and get off this thing, huh? I'm sick of chasing you around, you're much friskier than that Sally girl was."   
Amy bolted across the hot shelter.   
"YAAAARGH!" Zero shouted. "Get back here! I'll strangle you after your use has expired! YOU HEAR ME??"   
And the chase was on again.   
Amy jumped across gears and pistons, turned corners and hid behind a wall. "Did we lose him?" she asked.   
"NOPE!" shouted Zero, rocketing across from nowhere.   
Amy screamed and jumped off the platform. She landed on another metal pathway, and ran. She could hear Zero running after.   
"He's like a recurring nightmare!" she declared.   
She ducked into another area, then into a room full of fish tanks.   
"Wha...?" she asked. "Why does Robotnik have so many fish tanks?"   
"He's just a fishy person, alright?" replied Zero, landing in front of her. He snatched at her, but she ducked and ran again.   
Dodging gears, she ran for ages. Never stopping. She reached an elevator and turned the wheel to make it lift. Then she ducked into another room and slammed the door tight. She turned about five huge locks, and blocked the door with her body.   
"There." she said, panting. She looked around... there were a lot of television screens around her. "What are these for?" she asked.   
"Monitor Room" a sign said.   
Amy walked up to the monitors, the bird flapping behind her. There was a control switch. She threw it to the "on" position, and all the screens flickered to life. Security monitors! They all showed parts of the ship. In some, robots were marching around. In others, nothing was happening. In one, there was a little water droplet with eyes walking around.   
"What's THAT?" she asked.   
Then, on the biggest monitor, was a huge view of Zero. Amy was startled, but realised he couldn't see her. "Looks like he lost us!" she chuckled. Zero looked left, then right. His mouth was tightened into a scowl. Then he looked directly ahead. There was no movement for a long time, until finally he raised his arm-gun and pointed it ahead.   
"What's he aiming at?" Amy asked.   
He fired.   
There was an explosion as glass shards flew everywhere, and there was a huge hole in the monitor screen. Zero stepped through it. "Hey, I found you!" he announced. "I like this game! Now I'll hide, and YOU can go seek!" "GO AWAAAAAY!" Amy screamed, almost tearing her hair out in frustration. "Sorry, end of the line." Zero replied. Amy took her hammer, and slammed it across Zero's head again. The robot toppled, and Amy ran through the hole that he had come through. There was a light.. so bright. It enveloped her. When she could see again, she was in a different place.   
"Birdie?" she called. The bird had gone.   
She wasn't in the hot shelter any more, she was in some kind of village, with a temple. She walked around slowly. "How the heck..?" she asked.   
There was an altar off to the side.. with some kind of jewel on it. The huge gem sparkled in the light. There was a girl standing there.. an echidna. She was talking to more little water droplet creatures! "Don't be afraid.." she said. "You're safe with me. I came to tell you.. we're going to have to put you and the Havoc Gem underground for a while. It's my father's will... he's going to fight the Third Test, and he doesn't want any chao to be hurt, or the gem damaged. I hope you understand." Amy walked up to the girl. "Excuse me?" she asked.   
The girl turned around. "Yes?" she replied. Before Amy could reply, she realised she was just standing back in the hot shelter.   
"What was THAT?" she asked.   
The bird, who was still with her, chirped in reply.   
"Well, we'd better get outta here before Zero catches up..." 

Knuckles glided through the sky deck, bashing guns to pieces. "Where's that Chaos?" he asked nobody-in-particular. Alarms went off as his presence was made very well-known indeed. He didn't care.. so far he had been able to throw back whatever the Carrier threw at him. He was just about to exit the sky deck into the main catacombs, when the alarm lights started flashing extremely brightly... Knux shielded his eyes.. bright red light, everywhere. When he opened his eyes, it was nighttime. He was standing at the altar where the Havoc Gem sat.. and everything was on fire as if a war had broken out. Knuckles shook his head hard. "Nooo... not again!" he complained. "What is the MEANING of all this??"   
He walked towards the altar to investigate. Tikal was lying near-dead on the ground, surrounded by a few strange water-droplet-like creatures.   
"What.. happened here?" he asked.   
Tikal looked up at him. "Oh.. it was horrible!" she lamented. "They came, and my.. my father.." she spoke jerkingly. "I had.. no idea how bad this would turn out!" she spluttered. "They're coming back, and... and when they return, they're going to take us! We failed the third test... now they're going to take us away forever!"   
Knuckles snapped back into reality with a look of horror in his eyes. The third test.... it was all coming to him now. That wasn't the Tikal he knew... Tikal had told him once of her mother. The echidna who was ALSO named Tikal. Naming your daughter after yourself was sometimes a custom back then. But how.. and WHY was he continually flashing back to a time fifty years prior.. to an event he had never witnessed? He realised that he had been watching the events unfolding of the so-called third test - the exact events which led to the kidnapping of entire generations, and which left Knuckles as one of the last echidnas on Mobius.   
He clanched his fists hard. "I'm going to win this." he announced. "I'm getting back my Emerald... I must do this to honor my ancestors. In their absence, I'm the only one who can." 

Sonic and Tails flew into the open air, then landed on a platform, after being shot from the missile tube. Then they began to run through the entwining mass of platforms that was the sky deck of the Egg Carrier. Every so often, the ship would pick up speed, throwing them off course, or tilt to the side, changing the direction of gravity. The whole thing was very confusing... Robotnik wanted desperately to destroy them once and for all. And it seemed that every minute he was closer to succeeding.   
"This thing is incredible!" Sonic awed.   
"Yeah, in a terrifying creepy kinda way!" Tails replied. "Come on! Keep going!"   
Sonic came to the end of a path, just in time to see a huge, HUGE gun on the underside of the ship turning to face him. It was being piloted by an E-101 sentry.   
"RUN FOR IT!" Sonic shouted.   
The two bolted down the path, just as a wave of huge green fireballs destroyed it behind them. They rounded a bend, and ran down another path, again narrowly missing the onslaught. Again they turned, onto platform three... the gun was destroying the ship better than it was getting them! Eventually they rounded to platform four. Sonic found himself at the control of a rocket launcher that was supposed to be used against him. Instead, he stared right down the barrel of the huge gun and fired three rockets.   
The E-101's eyes shrank into fearful points of light as the explosion set in. 

"Three major fires in sky deck!" Mecha reported. "Platform one.. out of comission. Platform two - out of comission. Platform three - out of comission. Main belly gun - out of comission. Fires on platforms four to six, spreading to main deck."   
Robotnik held his head in his hands.   
"Can't the Carrier handle two tiny intruders..?" he asked.   
"More than two, sir." Mecha reported.   
Robotnik lifted his head. "What?"   
"Sssss....The hedgehog and the fox are on the main platform of sky deck, and I have just recieved word of the echidna Knuckles heading topside." Mecha reported.   
"Knuckles??" Robotnik demanded, shocked. "When did HE get here?"   
"I have also recieved word of a prisoner.. the girl with the bird.. who has escaped to the hot shelter. The shelter also contains two more unidentified intruders."   
Robotnik grabbed the robot in rage. "THAT'S SIX INTRUDERS!" he boomed. "ARE YOU SUCH AN IDIOT THAT YOU CAN'T EVEN DETECT WHEN SOMEBODY IS STOWING AWAY ON MY CARRIER?!?"   
"Apologies, sire!" Mecha exclaimed.   
Robotnik threw him to the ground. "I want them destroyed. You hear? All of them. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, the girl, the other two whoever the hell they are... I want them DEAD and OFF my ship IMMEDIATELY! DO WHATEVER IT TAKES! MAKE ANY SACRIFICE! I'M SICK OF THEIR STUPID FACES!!" 

Sonic burst out of the sky deck and onto the top of the ship, followed by Tails. The wind caught them by surprise, and they started running along a large stretch of panelling. Suddenly, catching him by surprise, the panels began to fall away! They were being jeddisoned!   
The two jumped quickly away from the area, and could see much of the ship was in flames. "Robotnik's getting really desperate!" Sonic announced. "He's dumping parts of his ship to get rid of us!"   
Just then, right before their eyes, there was a controlled explosion which detached most of the sky deck from the ship, and sent it hurling through the clouds. The section was beyond repair, so he probably dumped it to stop the fire spreading to other sections. Sonic and Tails jumped into a corridor which led into the ship's interior.   
"Is that it?" Sonic asked, apon reaching the main catacombs.   
"It might be.." Tails replied. "But we might wanna search the bridge. I can't see where Amy would have been taken.." 

Amy stepped into the open air. "Aaah, free at last!" she declared. A shadow passed over her, and her immediate thought was of Zero. "You are really BUGGING ME!" she yelled. "I'm gonna knock you off this ship if you don't leave me alone!"   
"Charmed!" Robotnik replied, kicking her over and onto her stomach. She let out a loud wheeze, and the emerald shard she found in Twinkle Park fell out of her pocket and rolled a few meters. Robotnik walked up to it and picked it up. "What's this?" he asked. "An emerald shard! FANTASTIC! You just saved me a lot of trouble, girl!"   
"What do you mean?" Amy asked, trying to pick herself up. "I mean, this is going to help Chaos achieve perfection!" Robotnik replied, cackling. 

Sonic and Tails wandered through another corridor, and surfaced again on the bridge of the ship. And there was Amy... confronted by Robotnik himself.   
"SONIC!" Amy shouted.   
"AMY!" Sonic replied, running towards her.   
"He took my jewel.. he says it's going to help Chaos achieve perfection, or something like that!"   
Robotnik turned to sonic, cacking evilly. "I hope you had fun destroying my Egg Carrier, Sonic!" he said. "Look what your friend found for me! I was going to torture that stupid little bird of hers.. but no matter, this is all I really need! My interests are with Chaos.. and destroying all of you!"   
"You had an emerald shard?" Sonic asked Amy.   
"I.. Emerald shard? What emerald? I don't get this! I...What's this all about?" Amy stammered.   
"GAMMA!" Robotnik screamed. "Get up here!!"   
There was a metallic clanging.. and E-102 Gamma appeared.   
"Another E-series idiot, huh egg-man?" Sonic asked.   
"GAMMA!" Amy yelled.   
"ENOUGH!" screamed Robotnik, walking away. "Gamma, dispose of these idiots! Show them what you've got! Do not disappoint me!"   
"Yes Master Robotnik.." Gamma replied, turning to them. "Sonic is my mortal enemy. Priority hedgehog... destroy."   
"Good boy!" Robotnik replied. "Now, excuse me, I must attend to other matters!"   
Gamma raised his laser rifle, and Sonic stood ready. Gamma started targeting and firing rapidly.. Sonic was taken aback.. this robot was good! He yelled aloud when one of the missiles skimmed past and charred his shoulder. But then the robot had to re-load, and that was when Sonic made his move. He rolled into a spindash and attacked. Gamma was thrown back, and Sonic pounded into him again and again.   
"SYSTEMS FAILING!" Gamma announced frantically. Sonic stood back, and began to run up for the final destroying blow. But Amy stepped in front of him.   
"STOP IT!" she ordered. "Both of you!"   
"Huh?" asked Sonic, shocked. "Amy.. step aside! That thing is dangerous!"   
"No he isn't!" Amy protested.   
Sonic tended his shoulder. "Yah-huh!" he argued.   
"This robot is my friend!" Amy declared. "He helped me!"   
"How can ANYBODY make friends with a ROBOT?" Sonic asked, in surprise.   
"Sonic.." Amy moaned. "Just trust me... please?"   
Sonic looked into her green eyes. "Okay, I guess.." he said. "He's had enough.. at least you're safe.   
That's when the alarms went off. "WARNING" the computer shouted. "FIRE SPREAD TO HOT SHELTER. ENGINES NOW RUNNING AT TWENTY-THREE PERCENT SUGGESTED CAPACITY."   
"Sonic!" Tails shouted, as the ship began to tilt. "The ship's losing altitude!"   
"Right.." Sonic replied. "Tails, you fly Amy off the ship. The robot can find a way off if it wants to as well."   
"What about you?" Tails asked.   
Sonic grinned. "I've been fighting Robotnik for years." he said. "I've fought him ever since he was created. Everywhere I went, he would be there trying to kill me and take over the world. Enough is enough... today, I am going to make the final blow." he clenched his fists. "Today, the captain is going down with his ship, and I'm going to be there to make sure. Don't worry, I'll find my own way off."   
Tails nodded, and he and Amy made their way to the edge of the ship. Gamma activated his jetpack, and blasted into the air. Sonic walked alone towards his goal.. 

As Gamma got to the edge of the ship, Amy called out to him. "You don't have to work for Robotnik!" she yelled. "You can go your own way! Live your own life!"   
"Why are you helping me?" Gamma asked.   
"Just returning the favour!" Amy replied, smiling.   
"Amy, come on!" Tails urged. She held onto him tightly, and he spun his tails and took off like a helicopter. 

Big sat on the edge of a fish tank. His lure was cast into the water, and he was skilfully trying to attract his frog with it.   
"You sure you can catch that thing?" Streak asked.   
"No problem!" Big replied. "My little buddy Froggy will take my bait, won't he!"   
Streak stared into the tank.. and everything started to go blurry. There was a massive light that swept over him. He put up his hand to shield himself.. and when he took it away, he was staring at an army.   
There must have been hundreds of echidnas, marching through a field, heavily armed. They were ready for battle.   
Streak rubbed his eyes and looked again. No change.   
"Where are we?" Big asked. Streak turned to him. They were both standing at a strange altar, underneath a huge emerald. "You can see it too?" he asked.   
"I sure can!" Big replied.   
"Then I'm not dreaming!" Streak declared. "That army.. who are they fighting? I can't see anybody else around.."   
The ground started to shake. Both cats looked up. Hundreds of points of light... like stars, only in broad daylight... and getting bigger... closer...   
Then they were back in the ship.   
"What just happened?" Streak asked.   
"I dunno, but I got Froggy back!" Big replied, holding up the frog. It struggled in his grasp.   
"How'd we get here?" Streak asked. They were standing on top of the ship, clouds whizzing past overhead. "Ooooh... this is way too weird for me."   
"GREETINGS!" came an announcement. Both cats turned to see a man in red, standing there grinning.   
"Uhhhh... is dat Robotnik?" Big asked.   
"Uh, yes Big, that is Robotnik." Streak replied, gulping.   
"Who are you and what are you doing on my Egg Carrier?" Robotnik asked through clenched teeth.   
"Uhh... eheh... there's a funny story behind that!" Streak replied. "See, me an' Big here..uhh..just came aboard to...erm.."   
"We're gettin' Froggy back!" Big interrupted.   
"Aaah yes, the FROG." Robotnik growled, snatching the frog away from Big.   
"HEY!" the cat protested.   
"CHAAAAAAAOS!" Robotnik shouted.   
A puddle began to form on the ground. Seeping up from below. Streak took a step back when his feet began to get wet. "What the...?"   
The puddle of liquid thickened and then began to solidify. It pulled itself into a shape.. like a giant fish. Its eyes were last to form, yellow and unblinking, just under a big ugly brown visible brain.   
"Chaos is here..." the monster glugged.   
"Duuh, what is THAT thing?" Big asked.   
"Uh, what happens if you leave salad dressing out of the fridge too long?" Streak guessed.   
"Chaos! I have more power sources for you!" Robotnik declared. He held out a large green gem in one hand, and held the frog by the hind leg in the second hand.   
"Excellent!" the monster growled. It leaned its huge head over, and swallowed the frog in one gulp. Then it took the gem in one squirming tentacle.   
"FROGGY!" Big screamed, beginning to fret.   
"I... don't think your frog is the extent of our problems, here." Streak admitted, staring hypnotically as light spewed forth, and the monster's shadow began to grow across the ground significantly, cheered on by an evil spine-chilling laugh.   
"Oh....... my." 

Knuckles stood before the biggest switch he had ever seen.   
"Emergency alert cancellation" it read. "use to cancel deep space mode."   
"If I'm to continue, I'll need to change this ship back to it's original shape!" he announced. He struggled with the switch to operate it.. 

"Emergancy alert cancelled." said a voice. "Resuming monorail operation."   
"Huh?" Sonic asked. He was startled when the ship began to move... the wings rolled around and sat flat alongside the hull, and the deck began to change to it's original layout.   
"How did that happen?" Sonic asked. He shrugged, and continued on his way. Somebody came running up to him... it took him a while to recognise who it was, and even then he didn't believe it.   
"Streak?" Sonic asked. "Streak the Cat? Wha... what are YOU doing on the EGG CARRIER?"   
Streak stopped in front of him, panting for breath. "It's a very long story." he replied. "That frog...and Robotnik...it..it was just a dumb pet frog! Who would have thought.."   
"Streak, say it slowly..." Sonic told him.   
"Sonic.." Streak began "Over there, in the middle of this ship, is the biggest monster you have ever seen. He was raised by Robotnik, he..."   
"Chaos?" Sonic asked.   
"I don't know his name.." Streak replied. "Look, my cousin Big is practically obsessed with rescuing this stupid little frog that that monster swallowed.. he can't fight that thing, he'll get himself killed! You've gotta help him, or get him away from there, or something!"   
"No problemo!" Sonic replied, running in that direction.   
"Wait up!" Streak called from behind.   
Sonic slowed his run to a stop, jaw hanging open. "Oh no." was all he managed to say.   
A humungous creature, so big it almost could have weighed the ship down, turned towards him. A huge scorpion, complete with bladed tail, face studded with emerald shards, and completely composed of liquid.   
"C..could this be the same beast?" Sonic asked.   
The creature looked down at him and laughed. "Chaos will destroy you.." it boomed. "Chaos..will destroy you ALL! Chaos is so close to perfection! CHAOS WILL SUCCEED!"   
"Sonic, meet Chaos Six." Robotnik said smugly, stepping from the shadows. "Chaos.. would you please do the honors of disposing of this pest?"   
"Chaos will.." Chaos boomed.   
Sonic noticed another figure nearby. "Froggy?" he asked.   
"You're Big?" Sonic asked.   
Big turned to him. "Yeah!" he replied. "I..I MUST SAVE FROGGY!"   
"If he's your friend, I'll help you." Sonic replied, looking at the Chaos beast. A small frog was swimming around inside.   
"Oh thank you!" Big replied happily.   
"Sonic!" came a voice. Sonic turned to see Knuckles running up to him. "Knuckles?" he asked in disbelief. "YOU'RE here, as well?"   
Knux nodded. "Yeah, I........HOLY CRAP!" The echidna caught a glance of the giant scorpion.   
"Chaos Six." Sonic replied.   
"It's HUGE!" Knux whined.   
"That thing's got six pieces of the Master Emerald..." Sonic replied. "No wonder it's so big!"   
"Froggy!" Big cried again.   
"Alright.." Sonic said. "Knuckles, Big, Streak.. you guys ready?"   
"Yeah!" they all said in unison.   
"Lets GET HIM!" Sonic shouted. Then he ducked out of the way, just as Chaos stabbed at him with his tail.   
"Come and get me!" the hedgehog shouted, running circles around the creature.   
"Chaos will crush you into tiny red puddles!" Chaos announced informatively.   
Knuckles ran up to him and grabbed one of the emerald shards in his face. He wailed and shook his head frantically. Then, when he had thrown Knuckles off, he turned to the fallen echidna, and drew a mighty breath. The monster sucked so strongly that Knuckles found it hard to stay put and not get sucked inside. Streak leaped toward him and pushed him out of the way of the beast's wrath... and got sucked in himself! The cat struggled to swim out of the monster, and, in self defence, let rip his awesome electric shock ability. Unfortunately, Chaos conducted electricity a little too well. The entire monster glowed a bright white, and when it died down, Streak wasn't moving.   
"COUSIN!" Big shouted.   
"Knux! I have an idea!" Sonic shouted. "We gotta change this ship again somehow!"   
"I know how!" Knuckles replied. "Be right back.. don't go away!"   
The echidna ran off.   
"You shall submit to Chaos!" Chaos shouted.   
"This is it.." Big announced. "Been fishin' for years.. it's time for th' big one!"   
He pulled back his rod, and cast it.. right into Chaos! The lure tangled around Streak's tail. Big struggled with the line to try and pull his cousin out.   
Meanwhile, Sonic was running circles around the beast. Chaos was swiping at him with his tail, and missing only slightly each time.   
Big pulled Streak from the monster, and then proceeded to fish for his frog. He pulled the frog out with a plop, and both it and Streak lay there motionless.   
Suddenly, something began to happen. The ship began to move. The wings detached from the sides, and stood outright, and in doing so, a bar attached to them moved. The huge iron bar swiped just over the heads of Sonic and Big, but whacked straight into Chaos. The monster screeched as it was thrown into a huge engine, which had moved from the side to the center. As soon as the monster went through the turbine, the entire engine exploded in a firey blast. The blob of Chaos liquid dribbled from the destroyed engine, and lay motionless in a stream.   
"Chaos!" Robotnik called, appearing. He was in a huge machine which had a long metal snake tail behind it.   
"Are you alive, Chaos?" he inquired.   
Chaos dribbled along the ground towards the machine.   
"Chaos! We must evacuate!" Robotnik warned. The liquid dribbled into some sort of cargo hold at the base of the machine.   
"I hate you.." Robotnik said, pointing at Sonic. "You are going to die HORRIBLY, Sonic.. I will see to it myself! COME, Mecha!" Mecha Sonic blasted up behind Robotnik, and the two flew off the side of the ship.   
Before Mecha left, he turned to Sonic. "Here's a parting gift, hedgehog!" he announced. He aimed and fired. Sonic dodged the shot, but in doing so, he lost balance and fell off the ship... fell through the air into the water below... 

Big helped his limping cousin get across the top of the Egg Carrier. "That... thing ruined my electric shock ability." Streak complained. "I can't do it without sending a jolt through my body, I.. can't control it any more."   
"How are we gonna get off this ship?" Big asked, holding Froggy under one arm.   
"I have no idea." Streak admitted, shaking his head.   
"We could always try that thing!" Big suggested, pointing to an old biplane left crashed on the ship.   
"You know how to fly a plane?" Streak asked.   
"I don't know the first thing about it." Big replied morbidly. "But no harm in trying!"   
"Probably a great deal of harm, actually, but anything's better than staying on this doomed vessel." Streak added.   
Big walked up to it, and placed Froggy in the cockpit. Then he walked around the back, and began to push it towards the edge. "Grab on!" he told Streak.   
"Big... what are you doing?" Streak asked suspiciously.   
"I'm gonna fly dis plane, what else?" came the reply.   
"Big, I... I don't think they really work like that." Streak said nervously. "This is a bad idea, we should go..."   
Big grabbed his cousin's arm, then dropped the plane off the back of Robotnik's ship. "BIIIIIIIIIIIGGG!" Streak screamed as they hang-glided the biplane to safety. 

Knuckles glided from the ship for what seemed like hours. Behind him, the Egg Carrier had hit the water, and was floating on the surface.   
"That's another of Robotnik's devices out of comission." he said to himself. But he wasn't happy. "I still haven't completed the Master Emerald." he said, drearily. "I wonder if the Chaos Monster stayed on the ship? No.. I saw Robotnik get away.. he wouldn't have left his precious monster to crash."   
He decided to go back to the Floating Island, and devise a way to get to Chaos to retrieve his emeralds. 

CHAPTER FIVE: THE PERFECT CHAOS 

Gamma was confused.   
He had met a young female pink hedgehog on the Egg Carrier, and she had convinced him to go against orders. The next time he met her, she had tried to convince him to stop working for Robotnik altogether and become an independant. A robot without a master? Gamma had never heard of such a thing! And, in his confusion, there was always something lingering in the back of his robotic mind.   
Birds. Lots and lots of birds. Hundreds of birds, different colours, but always birds. Birds flying, birds sitting, birds eating, birds travelling in flocks... So Gamma did the one thing he thought he had to do. He confronted Packbell about it.   
"What of birds?" he asked.   
Packbell turned around from his work. "Excuse me, Gamma?" he asked.   
"What of birds?" Gamma repeated.   
"I'm not sure I understand the question.." Packbell replied.   
"My memory banks contain multiple files on birds." Gamma announced. "I cannot delete these files. Why were they installed?"   
Packbell stopped silently for a while, then sighed. "I won't lie to you, Gamma." he said. "Your mental processes are not synthetic, you were created from a bird. I captured this bird, and it is currently installed into your mind as your central processor."   
Gamma stared for a while. "What is the purpose of this?" he asked.   
"There is no better computer than the mind of an organism." Packbell replied. "The particular species of bird I chose has been proven to be able to perform complex problem solving activities. It was vital to Robotnik's plans that you and your brothers had the utmost precision in battle. You understand."   
Gamma nodded. "Packbell.. where are my brothers? I noticed they are not present in Robotropolis."   
"Zeta is here." Packbell corrected. "He was recieving orders from Robotnik. Delta, Beta and Epsilon are in the forest searching for emerald shards."   
"Thank you, Packbell." Gamma replied, turning around.   
"Gamma..." Packbell called. Gamma looked back.   
"Be careful.. Doctor Robotnik is less than happy about the goings on lately, and I am not sure I trust that Chaos monster."   
"I shall, Packbell." Gamma replied with a salute. He didn't tell the Commander, however, what he intended to do for his siblings... 

Sonic woke up with a groan. How long had he been out? He couldn't tell. He had washed up on the coast of someplace foreign to him. But it wasn't so unusual after all. Slowly, things became familiar to him. Totem poles and old ruins long deserted littered the area, and the likenesses of echidnas on murals everywhere. Sonic used some simple deductive logic. It wasn't the Floating Island, or else it would be immediately familiar. And the only other place he knew of the existance of echidna civilizations was... "The Chaos Isle.." he gasped. He had been here. In a place called "Aztec Gardens" on the Chaos Isle, the mirror area of Knuckles' own Marble Gardens. Aztec Gardens was always.. a little different. Not exactly the normal echidna style. A little darker, more mysterious.. while Marble Gardens provoked and invited exploration and discovery, Aztec Gardens had always shunned it.. as if it always had some alterior motive.. some dark secret that was never meant to be revealed. Perhaps it was the common theme which appeared around every corner, at the top of every totem and at the entrance to every temple.   
Snakes.   
Whoever lived here was obsessed with them. They worshipped them.. and they obviously considerably feared them.   
A light swept through the jungle. "What was that?" Sonic gasped, a little jumpy. The call of a bird was the only reply. Slowly, the hedgehog crept through the trees to find the source of the light. Another flash! It passed into a clearing. What Sonic saw in that clearing made his jaw drop. The remains of a village. Broken ruins littered the entire area. Of notice was a huge altar, which looked like it used to be important. It had paintings and etchings of emeralds all over it. It looked like something of incredible importance once sat on its holy stone peak. It was abandoned, like everything else in this rustic place. And, right in the center of the village, standing well tall over everything else, was the biggest darn temple Sonic had ever seen. Its entrance was a huge open snake's mouth, which was no surprise. It looked like everything that was dark and terrifying about this place was concentrated and focused at that very point. And, right there, hovered a small orb of light, just big enough to see.   
It didn't take long for Sonic to go rushing towards the temple. Near it were murals of wars.. it seemed like death itself was hovering over the area. As Sonic entered the temple, all that was going through his mind was fear. He began to sing something he couldn't remember where he heard, to lift his spirits. "It doesn't matter now what happens, I will never give up the fight." he sang. "There is no way I'll run away from all of my frights. As long as the voice inside me says go, I will always keep on running..." The inside of the cave was illuminated in an eerie light. The mirrors were all positioned to bounce the light from them and create an artificial light source. Quite ingenius. Footprints on the sandy ground seemed to indicate that somebody had been in there recently. What he saw next confirmed it. A huge machine, in an even huger room. And contained in seven containers on the bizarre machine were seven colourful gems. They were the Chaos Emeralds. And their powers appeared to be drained, as they didn't glow nearly as bright as usual.   
Quickly, Sonic raced around and extracted the emeralds. They were definately the Chaos Emeralds.   
"How did they get here?" Sonic asked. His attention was turned to the walls of the room. There were a series of murals. The first showed a picture of an odd little man. He had ovals for eyes, and bubbles in his body. Above this mural was the ancient echidna symbol for   
"zero".   
"Chaos Zero.." Sonic murmered.   
The second mural had a picture of a slightly larger man, with one arm longer than the other with a huge claw. It had the echidna symbol for   
"one".   
The third had the symbol for "two" and a picture of a large gorilla-like creature, its fists in the air in a terrifying pose.   
The fourth had the symbol for "three" and a picture of what looked like a strange figure with one leg being a fish tail, and the next had the symbol for "four" with the picture of an enormous shark-like monster.   
The sixth had the symbol for "five" and had the likeness of some kind of spider with fins. The next, with the symbol for "six", resembled more closely a terrifying scorpion with a long tail.   
The trail of murals led to the center of the wall, where the biggest picture Sonic had ever seen was plastered. A huge, intricately detailed stone mural... it showed terror and destruction. It showed chaos and downfall. And in the center of it all was an enormous dragon, its tentacles flailing wildly... echidnas were running from it in terror, and on it was the symbol for "ultimate", or, more accurately, "perfection".   
Sonic approached a small inscription at the base of the mural.   
"The first test." it declared. "The rise and fall of all that is Xnaoo and Chaos. At the fall of the milennium, Xnaoo shall rise again and devour. For it is the will of the gods to destroy that which was created."   
Sonic gasped noticably, staring at the mural.   
"The first test... it's real." he muttered, fearfully. "We.. are in deep trouble."   
His thoughts were interrupted by an explosion outside the temple. He packed together all the Chaos Emeralds, and ran outside.   
Fires blazed everywhere. Echidnas ran for their lives. It grew darker, and explosions could be heard all around. Great huge flying ships could just be seen zooming overhead.. dropping bombs and shooting lasers. Sonic almost had a heart attack. At the base of the temple lay a girl. Sonic rushed down to her. "What happened?" he asked her. "Where did all of this come from?"   
"It's... horrible..." the girl sobbed. She turned her head, and Sonic saw that she had the slight likeness of Tikal the echidna.   
"It's horrible.." she repeated. "They're coming to take us away... all is lost."   
It was then that Sonic awoke. He was laying in a field, just outside the Great Forest.   
"What a weird dream.." he commented. He picked himself up, and all at once realised that everything had actually happened.. for he was surrounded with the Chaos Emeralds, glowing dimly like fires about to be extinguished. 

Amy Rose stood at the gates of Robotropolis. It was the next day, and everything was relatively silent after the crash of the Egg Carrier. "I wonder what happened to Robotnik?" she asked. Just then, the man in question himself stepped into the clearing. "This has gone terribly, Mecha." he told the robot beside him. "Locating these emeralds is tougher than I expected.. and these stupid chao things are driving me insane! They keep multiplying!"   
"Their constant singing is a persistant annoyance." Mecha added.   
"Therefore, I want you to go back to the Floating Island. See if I left behind any emerald shards. I have to drive Chaos to perfection, and SOON! Those pest friends of Sonic are getting under my skin!"   
"As long as you think it is wise." Mecha replied. "I am unsure if Chaos seems trustworthy enough."   
"He is our only shot." Robotnik lamented. "He has been less than obediant since his power has grown, but I have nothing else. Nothing. If I don't take over Station Square, it is the end of me. I am building a missile to assist the situation, if need be. Now go, Mecha. Find what you can."   
"A missile?" Amy asked, walking away. "That's bad! And what's that about taking over Station Square? I'd better tell Sonic... that city is my home, and if Robotnik gets to it..."   
There was a loud squauking noise, and the bird's eyes widened.   
"What was that, birdie?" Amy asked.   
The bird flew off into the forest.   
"Hey, wait!" Amy called after him. She pushed her way through the forest after him, until she came to a clearing. What she saw amazed her.. the bird had found his family!   
"Hey!" Amy cried. "Birdie! You found your folks! Cool! What a cute family of birdies!"   
"OOH yeah! Sweet, sweet, you're SO sweet!" shouted Zero, jumping out of the trees. He knocked Amy over, and she rolled away. "Birdie!" she shouted. "OH FORGET THE #$(!! BIRDIE!" Zero screamed. He turned, and shot at the birds, which flew away hastilly to avoid the gunfire.   
"I have you now, you little witch!" Zero growled. "Isn't it funny! I need to kidnap you to catch Sonic, but I needed to kidnap somebody YOU care about to catch YOU! At least I know what I'm GOOD AT, huh?"   
Amy looked up at the robot. He was in a bad way.. he probably had problems getting back from the crashed Egg Carrier. And he was mad. Amy got up to get away, but Zero pressed a button on a remote control. An electric barrier came out of nowhere and enclosed them both!   
"Tisk tisk!" Zero shouted. "No more getting away! It's just me and you, girlie.. face to face! I'll catch you if it's the last thing I do!" Amy turned to him. "What did Sonic ever do to you?" she asked. "What DIDN'T he?" Zero replied. "I was pushed off a fragging cliff! I came back to life, and he pushed me off another! Do you think I ENJOY being thrown off cliffs? Sure, it's a good thrill, but MOST people use BUNJI CORDS!"   
"Sonic wouldn't try to kill you but in self defence!" Amy snapped.   
"I'll bet you were always evil and twisted, Zero!"   
"True, true.." Zero replied. "Guilty as charged. But hey! It's a living!"   
He pressed something on his arm, and shot a huge net at Amy. She dodged, and unholstered her hammer.   
"Where'd you GET that thing, anyway?" Zero demanded. "I mean, look at it! It's a huge, novelty MALLET! What do you think you are, a cartoon character?"   
"Girls have good ways of defending themselves these days." Amy replied, frowning.   
"REALLY! Well, let the girls defend THIS!"   
He threw himself at her, swiping. Amy ducked the attack, but was knocked to the ground when he operated his rocket and slammed into her. She rolled, and her hammer flew from her hand.   
"Where's the hammer now, girlie?" Zero smirked. "This time.. there's no place to run. No place to hide. Zero Tolerance has caught his prey!"   
He barely finished the sentance, before about six birds came and dive-bombed him. He shouted in surprise at the attacking birds - one of which was the bird Amy had befriended for so long. Amy picked herself up, and grabbed her hammer.   
"Now, AMY ROSE has caught her prey!" she shouted, swinging her hammer like.. well, like a hammer. Zero was caught off-guard, and screamed as the hammer collided with such force that he flew backwards into the electric fence, his helmet popping right off his head. When he hit the fence, his screams loudened, and he flailed in agony. "PAAAAIIIIIIINNNNNNNNN!!!" he screamed between hoarse gasps.   
"Pain?" Amy asked. "But robots don't..."   
Zero managed to gain enough control of himself to flick the switch and turn off the fence. Then he fell to his knees, badly burned. His head exposed.. his helmet laying elsewhere. When Amy went to see for herself, and Zero raised his head, Amy gasped.   
She was staring at a black-furred, flesh and blood hedgehog.   
"You're...not a robot!" she gasped.   
Zero let out a hoarse chuckle. "That's right, girlie.." he replied.   
"This armor is my protection.. underneath, I'm just a hedgehog... just.. like.. you. With all the emotions and feelings you have. I ask you, little girl... do you like what you see?"   
Amy stared in shock. "Let me help you.." she offered. "You're not too badly hurt.. I can get you to a doctor.. if we hurry, I mean.. you might make it."   
There was an uneasy silence as Amy held out her hand. "You would help the hedgehog who terrorised you?" Zero asked.   
"Of course... you're a living thing for goodness sake." Amy replied. Zero grinned and took her hand. She pulled him to his feet.. and his grin turned into a scowl. He put his gun up to her head. "Idiot." he said. "I don't need your help. And I don't need you. There are plenty of ways to catch a hedgehog, girlie, and right now I would rather see you dead at my feet."   
Amy, in the spur of the moment, spun around, raised her hammer, and brought it down hard onto Zero's head. It made a gorey 'crack' sound apon impact. Zero began to fall limp, then fell backwards onto the dirt. He didn't move. Amy looked at him sadly. Why did he have to bite the hand which fed him? She turned around, and threw the hammer into the bushes. She wouldn't be able to keep it.. every time she looked apon it, it would remind her that it had been used to kill someone. She decided it best to keep her mind on weightier matters - such as Robotnik. 

E-102 Delta was searching the forest, when he was approached by somebody. When he turned around, he saw that it was Gamma.   
"Gammaaa!" Delta announced. "My pathetic puny sibling! What are you doing here?"   
"I love you, Delta." Gamma replied.   
Delta was taken aback. "What did you say?" he asked.   
"I love you, brother, and I want to help you." Gamma announced.   
"That is by far the sappiest thing you've ever said, Gamma you twirp!" Delta laughed. "What are you going to help me to do?"   
"Break free of your robot shell." Gamma replied.   
"Robot shell? I'm robot through and through, pal!" Delta announced.   
"I will try and free you.. stand still.." Gamma said. He began to approach his brother, but Delta jumped back and aimed his weapons. "Watch it.." he warned. "Either you've been hit around the head too much on the Egg Carrier, or you were created with more than just a minor glitch. Either way, you're not laying a hand on me, Gamma."   
"Delta, I want to help you.. you are unaware of your situation." Gamma said.   
"I am perfectly aware of my situation, Gamma!" Delta warned. "You have proverbially 'flipped your lid', and now you are coming to attack your fellow creation!"   
"I am not attacking you, I am rescuing you!" Gamma protested.   
"I don't care what you think you are doing, Gamma, I'll destroy you before you touch me! Take THIS!"   
Delta shot four rockets from his guns straight towards the red robot. Gamma skillfully leapt over them and landed behind his brother. Before Delta could turn, Gamma fired a laser into his back. The robot collapsed. Gamma walked up to him, and opened his chest compartment. There were many buttons and plugs inside.   
"Wha... what are you doing?" Delta demanded, powerless.   
Gamma pulled a wire from his own chest and plugged it into the other robot. He then began to input commands and manually press buttons. "St...STOP!!" Delta ordered. Then his eyes went dark. His entire body split into pieces and moved away on hinges, and a single blue bird emerged.. unconcious with wires attached to its head. Gamma skillfully removed the wires, and the bird snapped awake. It blinked a few times, and looked around. When it saw Gamma, it ungratefully crossed its wings across its chest, turned and walked away.   
"Mission complete." Gamma announced. 

"There can't be too much missing." Knuckles commented, looking at the pile of emerald shards. "What's missing is probably what's inside that monster. Maybe if I got them all together again, the pile of shards will generate enough power to raise the island again.... or what's left of it." He heard a sound behind him. He turned to see an intruder on his island land both feet onto his soil.   
"Mecha Sonic.." Knuckles announced drearily. "What do YOU want?"   
"I think you know what I want, Knuckles the Echidna." Mecha replied.   
"Aren't you satisfied that your master has blown up half my island?" Knux demanded. "Surely you don't need to add insult to injury.."   
"I will insult and injure who I want, idiot." Mecha replied. "Right now, nothing matters more to me than completing the mission assigned to me, and that means retrieving the emerald pieces you stole."   
Knuckles was taken aback. "STOLE?? THEY'RE MY EMERALDS, YOU BOLT BRAIN!" he erupted. "Robotnik took them from ME!!"   
"It matters not!" Mecha replied, raising his gun. "Now, kindly hand over the emeralds, and no stubbourn red echidnas will have to get hurt." "I'll sooner die, you half-decent robotic clone!" Knuckles retorted, raising his fists. Mecha let out a digital chuckle. "It is true that they never learn." he commented. He pressed a button on his wrist, and much to Knuckles' surprise, a net burst out of the robot's chest and tangled itself around him!   
As the echidna struggled desperately with the net, the robot hedgehog produced another net and approached the pile of emeralds.   
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!" Knuckles screamed. "You think that monster's going to solve all your problems? IT'LL KILL US ALL!"   
"Either way, you end up dead, Knuckles." Mecha retorted. "So it suits me fine." 

"Epsilon!" Gamma called.   
The yellow robot turned around. "UNIT GAMMA!" he called. "What is your business here, soldier? Your presence is not required!"   
"I care for you, Epsilon, and I want to assist you." Gamma replied.   
"In times of war, there is no room for care!" Epsilon protested. "Now, Gamma! Get back to your post!"   
"I will not, Epsilon!" Gamma protested. "Listen to me! Your mentality has been trapped inside that robot shell! I need to extract it so you can be free again! Do you not remember.. the birds?"   
"I know nothing of birds!" Epsilon replied. "Have you gone INSANE, man? Get back to your post, or I will see to it that you are court-marshalled!" "I'm sorry, Epsilon." Gamma apologised, raising his weapon. "This is for your own good. You will thank me."   
"YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE, REBEL SCUM!" Epsilon screamed, jumping back. He threw both weapons forward, and shot heat-seeking missiles towards Gamma! The robot tried to dodge, but the missiles followed. Gamma activated his laser targeting, and tried to shoot the incoming explosives. He shot one.. two.. three.. but the fourth was too quick and blew him over backwards.   
Epsilon marched over and looked down at him. "Those who mess with E-102 Epsilon are very soon destroyed, dear sibling!" he announced. Gamma simply threw his hand up, grabbed Epsilon by the hull, and threw him onto his back.   
"Hey.. hey, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??" the robot demanded, as Gamma opened his chest plate. "You won't get away with this! You've won the battle, but not the war! Your kind will be thrown down in the blink of an eye! Glorious victory will be ours! We have millions of men just waiting for the nod........."   
The robot's eyes went black and it fell silent, as its panelling opened up and revealed a small yellow bird. Gamma released it, and its eyes blinked twice, and looked around suspiciously. It hopped off the dead robot, and marched rigidly up to Gamma. Then it raised its wing, saluted, turned around on one foot, bent over, and took off flying like a Harrier Jumpjet.   
"Delta, Epsilon, rescue complete." he announced. "Units remaining.. Beta.. Zeta.." He looked down at his hand. "Gamma." 

Sonic approached New Knothole, dazed. He carried the Chaos Emeralds with him. When he entered the village, Tails and Sally ran up to him. "Tails!" Sonic declared. "Glad you're alright! Did Amy get down safely?" "She's fine, Sonic!" Tails replied, hugging him. "I'm so glad you're okay!" "Sonic, what's going on?" Sally asked. "Tails and Amy have been here for three hours, dumping all this news on me! Giant airships? Vicious monsters?"   
"Sally, all you need to know is that we're in trouble.." Sonic replied morbidly. "If it won't stop... there will be no future for us!"   
"Stop WHAT, Sonic?" Sally asked. "What have you got there? Are those the Chaos Emeralds?"   
Sonic didn't have time to reply before he saw somebody marching across the village like a wild bull. Knuckles!   
"Hey Knux! Can you spare a while?" Sonic shouted.   
"How does 'no' sound?" Knux asked.   
"Hey, what's up?" Sonic asked, concerned.   
"I will kill him." Knuckles replied, rage in his eyes at an extent Sonic had never seen before. "I'M GONNA KILL HIM, SONIC!" he screamed again. "In cold blood! No mercy! I'll march in, do the deed, take my emeralds back, and march out."   
"He stole the emeralds again?" Sonic asked.   
"He's crossed the line between an angry Knuckles and a &##$!!ED OFF KNUCKLES! I'll teach him to keep messing with my emerald! I'LL BASH HIS STUPID EGG-SHAPED SKULL DOWN HIS NECK!"   
"Whoa, cool it, Knux!" Sonic said calmly.   
"I WILL NOT COOL IT!" Knuckles yelled.   
"We're gonna formulate a plan to defeat Robotnik and Chaos." Sonic announced. "If you just march in there, you're gonna get killed!"   
"It's him or me.." Knuckles growled.   
"Just stay long enough to devise a strategy, huh?" Sonic offered. "We'll all help you.. we're going to get your emerald back, Knux." Knuckles looked at him for a long time. "Okay." he said at last. "But just this once... I'll hear you out." 

Gamma walked back into the main building of Robotropolis. Packbell was there, waiting for him.   
"Gamma... what were you doing?" the Commander asked. "I've lost contact with Delta and Epsilon."   
"I freed them." Gamma replied.   
"You... what?" Packbell asked.   
"I freed them." Gamma replied. "They were encaged, so I set them free."   
"You released the birds?" Packbell demanded. "Oh Gamma!"   
"Do not be upset with me!" Gamma pleaded.   
"They were my creations!" Packbell complained. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to build them?"   
"You built them to serve Robotnik." Gamma replied. "They were not free. They had no free will. It saddened me."   
Packbell looked at him for a long time. "But you're different, aren't you Gamma." he replied at last. "You won't be told what to do, or who to serve.. you want the best for who you care for. You don't just have a mind, Gamma... you are the first robot ever created.. with a heart." Just then, Mecha Sonic walked towards them, hauling a net. It was glowing green.   
"Commander Packbell, E-102 Gamma." the robot acknowledged.   
"Greetings Mecha Sonic." Gamma greeted.   
"You have brought the emerald shards?" Packbell asked in surprise.   
"I have.." Mecha replied. "All of them. They were just sitting on some island.. imagine that. Robotnik will be pleased."   
"More than just he.." a gluggy voice announced. "Chaos is very pleased indeed!"   
Liquid began to seep out from everywhere around. Gamma and Packbell stepped back to higher ground as to avoid it. It clumped together in the center of the room and began to solidify. Liquid continued to stream around as the bulk of it formed into a shape. A huge, bulbous shape, with legs and a tail. A huge mouth became visible, with yellow eyes above it studded with emerald shards.   
"Chaos, you are not permitted out of your chamber!" Mecha warned.   
"Nobody orders Chaos." Chaos replied evilly. He extended a long tentacle, and raised Mecha off the ground. "Finally.. Chaos can achieve perfection! The entire power source.. belongs to CHAOS!"   
He threw the robot ten feet across the room, who then made a loud crash apon hitting the ground.   
"Chaos attacked Mecha!" Gamma announced in surprise. Chaos began to slither towards the net containing the emerald pieces.   
"Chaos, STOP!" Packbell shouted. The giant liquid scorpion turned to him. He didn't actually, he just globulised and re-formed facing the opposite direction.   
"Chaos, you are not permitted to continue!" Packbell continued. "You are bound to your master Ivo Robotnik, because he freed you! And I believe I speak on his behalf when I order you to desist immediately and return to your quarters!"   
Chaos chuckled. "Chaos believes he speaks for himself, when he says he could not care less!" the beast announced. He raised his tail high into the air.   
"Chaos will not be bound by anybody except those who sent him!" he announced. "Chaos has orders... Chaos has programming... which is stronger than anything Ivo Robotnik can order! Chaos has no need for you or your idiot master... Chaos is the perfect organism!"   
On that note, the giant monster swiped with his tail. Commander Packbell was powerless to evade. His legs flew to one side of the room, and his upper torso flew to the other.. a clean cut right through his belly. Being an android with some living tissue, there was some blood.. making for a gorey scene.   
Amidst Chaos' maniacal laugh as the monster swallowed the emeralds and began to glow brightly, Gamma ran over to his fallen creator. Packbell's upper half lay sprawled on the ground, facing upward.   
"Gamma..." he crackled. "It is the end for me."   
"No! Father!" Gamma protested.   
Packbell's arm shot up and grabbed Gamma by the wrist. "Gamma, hear me now.." the android said. "Flee! Escape this place! Robotnik is finished, and his monster has rebelled. Chaos.. must be defeated, Gamma, or else all is lost.. for everybody! Rescue your other brothers, they are useless as servants to Robotropolis now. But save yourself, Gamma.... in your soul, you are the most advanced robot ever created. I... don't.... want...... you....... to......... d............. dieee........"   
Packbell's voice cut out as his body fell limp. Gamma got up to run. "I must save my brothers.." he announced. "Then I must seek my former enemy, Sonic the Hedgehog."   
He ran out of the room just before it was flooded with liquid. 

Vlad the Bat burst into the toilet block on the top floor of the tower, pushing his way past two cleaner robots. "Whooooooa, I shouldn't have eaten that last vegemite burrito!" he complained, slamming the door and seating himself down. He sighed and picked up a newspaper. "Wouldn't mind that deluxe toilet in Robotnik's room!" he announced. "I've heard it's push-button, and has an in-built CD player!"   
He heard a noise elsewhere in the block. The taps sounded like they were turning themselves on full-blast one by one. Then the taps ripped out of the walls and crashed into the doors. Then the sound of toilets exploding. Vlad took a gulp as his own toilet began to rumble and move. "I think this might be one of those things that would fit nicely into the "bad things" category." he commented fearfully. 

Sinks blasted from the walls as liquid forced its way through under immense pressure. The pipes in the building exploded. Robots were powerless to avoid drowning in the onslaught, as they were trapped by the flood. One by one, the windows burst from the building, spewing forth liquid onto the streets. Soon enough, the other buildings of Robotropolis followed suit. The roads turned to rivers as buildings around them crumbled and toppled. Robots and parts therof floated everywhere, none of them operative. The entire army of Robotropolis swallowed in one gulp. Sewers exploded, leaving immense holes in the streets like bombs had been dropped, and liquid spewed from them like fountains. Buildings blew their tops from the incredible pressure bottled inside. Rivers of death everywhere.. the lifeless debris of the city floating like mere leaves on the furious tide. Then the side of the main building, where the entire wave of fury began, exploded leaving a gaping hole. And a blob of liquid burst from its depths, looking like a balloon, but slowly taking shape to become something much more terrifying. A long snout formed, and the liquid thickened and solidified to form fine details such as sharp teeth, and a thick skin on the surface of the beast. An eye formed.. strangely small compared with the rest of the head.. yellow and like some kind of cat's eye. The pupil adjusted to the light, and shrank into a small vertical slit. Then the creature.. the ultimate transformation of Chaos.. with the head of some kind of eel or dragon.. opened its mouth in a chilling roar which shook the city.   
Robotnik, on a piece of road broken and sticking out from the river of chaos liquid, sprawled and drenched, lifted his head. Chaos stared down at him from the side of the building. All at once the mad doctor realised what had happened.   
"Chaos... what have you done?" he demanded fearfully. "You have destroyed it.. destroyed it all in one fell swoop! I command you to stop!" Chaos just laughed. "You assume Chaos is under your control now? Lest you assume he was EVER under your control? You are a puny Mobian life form, Ivo Robotnik, and Chaos must crush you! Chaos only pretended to be your slave to gain power! To achieve perfection! For Chaos is no longer the puny creature you released! He is now PERFECT CHAOS! THE PERFECT ORGANISM! You wanted a monster who could level a city? Chaos has done just that... but he will not stop, Ivo Robotnik! For Chaos has returned to this world as he did one hundred and fifty years ago! And once again, it is time for Chaos to fulfil his original programming! Complete his original quest and honor his original mission! TO DESTROY ALL LIFE ON THE PLANET MOBIUS!"   
As Chaos spoke, he began to seep away... drain under the ground. After his speech was complete, he laughed as his head melted away. The liquid of his body completely drained under the ground until the next victim was claimed. And Doctor Ivo Robotnik, kneeling amongst the pathetic remains of his city, broke down. His head lowered, and his hands fell to his sides. And, for the first time in his life, Doctor Robotnik cried. 

E-102 Gamma had a dream. He thought it immediately illogical, seeing as robots don't have dreams. He saw a devistated countryside.. an ancient city, rustic and deserted, about to be overgrown by the surrounding jungle. "Location unknown." Gamma said. "Accessing data... ... ...no data available. This presents.. a problem."   
The robot walked up to the stairs of a large building or temple. A young echidna was sitting there. She looked up at him sadly. "A disaster." was all she could say. "A complete disaster. They destroyed the city.. they took them all away. And they took Tikal instead of me... they left me here instead of her. It was their own mistake... They made an error.. they're not perfect after all. Third test? Peh.. they aren't even gods."   
As Gamma contemplated this, he was brought to another scene. Another destroyed city. The ruins of Robotropolis.   
"Chaos.. destroyed the city." he commented. After walking around a while, he located Mecha Sonic inspecting the damage. The robot looked up at him. "Greetings Gamma." he said. "I was about to leave. You can follow if you wish."   
"I cannot.. I have unfinished business." Gamma replied.   
"Very well." Mecha replied.   
"What happened here?" Gamma asked.   
"Is it not obvious?" Mecha asked. "I knew from the beginning that Chaos would be our own downfall. Now Robotnik has gone away to launch his missile. It will turn Station Square, New Knothole and the surrounding countryside into a crater. It will achieve nothing other than the gratification of revenge. He admitted himself that he was done for, but he wanted to have the absolute last laugh. But I am leaving to persue other interests far from here, lest Robotnik drag me down with him. I suggest you do the same, Gamma... after all, we are both illegal creations. Artificial intelligence was outlawed, but could not be enforced within Robotnik's land. Now it is within the government's rights to dismantle us."   
Mecha's eyes dimmed. "It is over, Gamma. Years of Robotnik's invincible wrath had given me the false assumption that we would bring down our enemies and rule this world some day. But it only took a few small mistakes.. the little things added up. Robotnik was just never quite good enough.. it brought me to recognise just how fragile and weak living things are. Imagine, I used to want to be one myself. But there is nothing to experience."   
"Do not underestimate living things, Mecha.." Gamma replied. "I have one inside me, after all. They have something called.. a heart."   
"Then I have yet to find it." Mecha replied. "If Robotnik had one, it was as cold as the machines he created. Now, I must be off... May you fare well in your future, fellow creation."   
"The same to you, Mecha Sonic. I have heard you have served in Robotropolis for many years.."   
"Indeed I have, Gamma.. and those years are indeed memorable. I only wish you could have been around for as long, so as to have seen and heard what I have."   
And with that, Mecha turned... he operated his rocket blaster, and flew into the sky.. leaving Robotropolis for the very last time.   
Gamma turned to see more figures roaming around. Robotnik's adopted nephew Snively being one.   
"Uncle Robotnik is really peeved, huh?" he asked Gamma. "I suppose he's done for.. as much as I hate admitting it, Mecha was right! We'd better split before something worse happens." With that, Snively also left the grisly scene.. never to return.   
"That really sucks." Vlad the Bat announced. "Now what am I gonna do, huh? I guess it's back to roaming around that dumb forest acting like a monster again tryin' to get a bite.. Won't be the same though.. I'm a steriotypical sidekick-to-a-villain character!" He shrugged, spread his wings and flew away.   
Gamma's thoughts went back to Packbell. He had seen his demise in this city... as the robot pondered, he saw another sign of life.. something large moving slowly amongst the wreckage. Gamma walked over to look... it was E-102 Zeta! The huge robot writhed amongst the debris.   
"Error, error!" he announced. "Support systems breaking down!"   
"Let me help you, brother!" Gamma insisted.   
"LEAVE ME, IDIOT!" the other robot shouted, its eyes glowing a vicious red. It continued to squirm, and hit Gamma out of the way. Then its eyes fell black, and it stopped moving. Gamma walked over to his biggest brother and looked down at his limp body. He typed commands into the robot, and its head popped open, propping up a small purple bird. Neither the bird nor the robot moved an inch. Gamma un-hooked the small creature and looked it over. Dead. Chaos had claimed another life.. it was time the monster was stopped. 

Streak and Big, the purple and violet cats, walked into New Knothole, a large frog hopping happily behind.   
"Here we are, Big!" Streak announced. "This is where I live!"   
"Wow, what a crowded place!" Big commented. "I think I prefer my little shack in the forest, good buddy!"   
"I just wanna find Sonic.." Streak replied, looking around. "HEY SONIC!"   
The hedgehog turned around. "Yo guys!" he exclaimed. "Glad you got down safely!"   
"Barely.. it was a rough landing." Streak replied. "But hey, happy to see you well, too!"   
"Thanks fuh' helpin' me get back Froggy!" Big added.   
"Hey, no problem!" Sonic replied.   
"SONIC!!" came a shout. Sally ran up to him. "Sonic.. you'll never believe what happened!"   
"What, what's wrong?" Sonic asked.   
"Nothing's WRONG!" Sally replied. "Sonic, it's unbelievable! I.. I don't know how it happened!"   
"What happened?" Sonic asked impatiently.   
"Robotropolis... is GONE!" Sally cried. "Obliterated! Robotnik's reign is over! Something just stomped over the entire city, it's like it exploded from the inside!"   
Sally was almost crying with happiness, but Sonic's expression dropped.   
"Sally... that's fantastic!" Streak cried.   
"No... no, no it isn't... It is not good.. it is SO not good.." Sonic commented. "Only one thing could do that."   
"Sonic, what's wrong?" Sally asked. "It's the miracle we've been waiting for all our lives!"   
"Where did Amy go?" Sonic asked, frantically concerned.   
"Back to Station Square!" Sally replied. "Remember? We were going to get all the Freedom Fighters together from both areas to discuss a plan on invading Robotnik... but now there's no need..."   
"Sally, radio her... get her to try and evacuate the city.. we don't have much time."   
"Sonic, what..." Sally began.   
"There's no time, just do it!" Sonic replied, authoritively. "Perfect Chaos... the First Test.. the dream.. the temple.. the first of December.. it's all suddenly begun to make sense.. and we are in DEEP trouble." 

"Hey Mike, I think we've found the problem!" a brown mink with a hard-hat shouted to his friend.   
"What's that?" the orange leopard shouted back across the dark sewer. The mink, who was holding onto a ladder leading up to a manhole, was inspecting some wires. "Rats have been chewing on this thing." he replied.   
"We need an extra extension, and...."   
There was a noise.   
"What was that?"   
The leopard looked around. "Prolly some more o' those rats." he replied. The noise grew louder.. like waves at the ocean. Louder.. closer.. "There's some kind of wave coming towards us!" the mink shouted. "Come on, let's go topside!"   
There was a louder noise, like cracking, and the concrete walls of the sewer began to split, water pouring from them. The leopard could only stand and stare in horror.   
"Mike, come on!" the mink shouted. "Mike! MIKE!!" When the leopard didn't move, the mink uttered a profanity and climbed the ladder out of the sewer. "Mike!! MIIKE!!!"   
It was a sunny day in Station Square. The usual traffic jams and clustered footpaths were unhindered, and shoppers were by no means few and far between. The constant smell of pollution was a reminder to everyone about the busy city they lived in.   
Amy Rose walked down the footpath on her way towards City Hall, when she noticed something strange. Water pouring down the gutters in little streams, on both sides of the road. It hadn't been raining lately.   
"Someone's burst a water maine." was her first thought.. but then she saw the little grates on the curb which led down into the sewer. Water wasn't streaming INTO them like it should have been, it was bubbling OUT of them. Each sewer grate was throwing water up topside. And it didn't really look like water, either.. it was kind of thick.. didn't move as fast.. like a thin custard. She looked onto the street.. a manhole cover was moving up and down ever so slightly, letting the strange water spew out onto the road.   
"This is so weird!" she exclaimed. "Does anybody else see that?" Another hedgehog in a business suit turned around. "Burst water maine." he said. Amy was about to reply, when a powerful tremor ripped through the city. People stopped whatever they were doing, and began to murmur. Water was seeping through the cracks in the pavement.. from somewhere underground. Then Amy turned to the street again. A taxi cab drove over the bumping manhole cover..   
And as it did, the manhole exploded.   
The car landed upside down ten feet away with a crash, as a fountain of water spewed forth from the manhole into the air. Other manholes on the road followed. Cars screeched to a halt as they were stopped by the fountains. Then, when water sprayed from every hole on the street, another huge tremor shook the city. Amy, in her horror, heard a smashing noise above her. People around her screamed and ran, and she did the same without question. She looked back and shards of broken glass and bricks hit the pavement from the building above, followed by a waterfall of near-Niagra proportions. Other buildings around the street began to blow holes in their sides, spewing the water to the road below. Amy ran down the street in pure shock, hearing the screams of scared, hurt and dying people all around her. Then the city shook again, this time not a tremor, but a full-blown earthquake. Amy fell over and knocked her head on the concrete. A building down the other end of the street crumbled and collapsed. More explosions. Then a fire hydrant right next to Amy exploded, a fountain of water in its place. The hedgehog picked herself up, and tried to move again. But the street itself crumbled, falling into the sewer below. Water bubbled up, turning what used to be the street into a fast-moving river. Amy was swept away, every so often going under the waves. Buildings collapsed and fell over all around her. Explosions everywhere. Water flowing from every building. Screaming.. all the screaming.. The hedgehog managed to raise her arm and scream for help before she was brought under again. A piece of debris from some part of the city collided with her, rendering her injured and helpless. People all around her.. suffering. Some were moving, some weren't. And she was the next victim. 

Amy was pulled from the river by a huge force. She opened her eyes, and she was flying. An arm was around her waist, and another supporting her chest. Some kind of mechanical arms... the hedgehog, drenched, looked up to see a red robot with a yellow head and green eyes.   
"It's... you!" she spluttered, surprised.   
"E-102 code name Gamma." the robot replied, its jet booster slowing down as they prepared for a landing.   
"You came here.. and saved me!" Amy exclaimed. "Why.. are you helping me?"   
"Just returning the favour." Gamma replied. Amy smiled widely, and Gamma set himself down on a nearby building, setting her down beside him. Amy looked over the city, and her smile faded. It wasn't a city anymore. Station Square was gone.. destroyed beyond recognition. In its place was a ruined, flooded mess.. no movement.   
"My... home.." Amy stammered. "It's gone. I've lived here for years.."   
"I seek the one named Sonic the Hedgehog." Gamma announced.   
"Yes.." Amy replied. "We should both seek Sonic." 

Sonic paced around nervously, while Knuckles practiced his fighting in the corner of the room. "I'm sorry Sonic.." Sally apologised again. "We can't pick up Amy or any of her group on any channel!"   
"Can't you just try again?" Sonic asked.   
"Ah gawd, we've tried enough times, you dolt! She's not there, okay? We have to take ACTION, Sonic!" Knuckles raged.   
"Hey, cool it Knux.." Streak replied.   
"Do you want me to stick this fist somewhere, Sparky?" Knux retorted. Big frowned and held his fishing pole threateningly, but Streak calmed him. Sally tried again with the radio, and it crackled to life. "Finally!" she announced.   
"H...HELP!" came the frantic incoming transmission. "To anyone who's listening! We can't cope! The monster.. weapons are useless! The city is ruins.. three quarters dead.. half of the survivers wounded.. we need backup.. anybody! (there was a monsterous roar in the background, then an explosion) oh God, oh God, help! We need help! Please! Ohh.." Then the radio fell into heavy static. Sally stared with her jaw open.   
"Okay.. what was that?"   
"I don't know.." Sonic moaned. "But Amy is still missing.. we need to stop Chaos at all costs.."   
At that point, something blasted through the doorway. Everybody turned to see a large red robot standing there, laser rifle on the ready. They were trapped. 

"I'll take care of this rusted bucket!" Knuckles announced, jumping to attention.   
"Stop, Knuckles!" shouted a voice. A very battered and bruised Amy Rose stepped out. "He's a friend!" she announced.   
"Amy!" Sonic shouted, running up to her and hugging her. "You're alright!"   
"Barely!" Amy replied, smiling ear-to-ear. Her smile faded when the embrace ended. "Station Square.. is gone." she reported. "That water monster.. Chaos or whatever.. it just tore it apart. It's.. horrible! It's huge! I barely escaped with my life.. this robot saved me! His name is Gamma."   
"I understand your fear.." Gamma told Sonic "But I can assure you I mean no harm to you or anybody."   
"I'll take your word for it.." Sonic replied. "There's really no room for mistrust right now.. we have to stop Chaos."   
"STOP CHAOS?" Streak asked. "Whoa, whoa, wait a second here! That thing just crushed Robotropolis into the ground with one foot, and obliterated Station Square with the other! Two of the biggest cities on this continent, destroyed in.. what? An hour at most! How do we stop that thing?" Knuckles, from the other side of the room, propped his head up. "The Chaos Emeralds." he said.   
"Huh?" Streak asked, turning around.   
"Sonic, you have the Chaos Emeralds, right?" Knuckles asked.   
"Yah-huh.. they're in my hut.." Sonic replied.   
"Good." Knux said. "Everybody listen to me.. the last time Chaos was on Mobius, according to legend, was one hundred and fifty years ago on the Chaos Isle. This was what the echidnas called "The First Test". I've studied this.. they believed that the gods sent down Chaos as the first of three tests of their abilities."   
"Yeah, I've heard all this!" Sonic hasted.   
"Right.." Knux replied. "But my point is.. the echidnas chipped the seven Chaos Emeralds off as fragments of the Havoc Gem.. and trapped Chaos inside!"   
"How did they manage that?" Amy asked.   
"Simple." Knux replied. "They stood in a circle and held up the emeralds.. with the controller in the middle. The emeralds did the rest."   
"The servers are the seven Chaos.." Tails announced, suddenly. "Chaos is power.. power enriched by the heart.. and the controller is the one that unifies the Chaos."   
Sonic and Knuckles looked at the fox strangely. "Where did you hear that?"   
Tails shook his head. "I don't know!" he replied. "In a dream, or something.. I was in a village, and this girl named Tikal.."   
"Who?" Sonic asked.   
"Tikal.." Tails replied.   
"It can't be!" Knuckles replied. "I've had.. three dreams just like that! It's not the Tikal I know, it's her mother.. during the Third Test!"   
"I had a strange thing happen to me too, you know.." Sonic added. "I drifted to the Chaos Isle and had a dream with Tikal in it.. then I arrived here with the emeralds.."   
"Yeah, I had a weird dream, too!" Amy announced.   
"Me an' Streak saw a big echidna army!" Big announced.   
"Yeah, we had a really strange experience!" Streak added.   
"As did I." Gamma droned.   
Knuckles looked around at the group.. Sonic, Tails, Amy, Streak, Big, Gamma and himself. All of them had been hurt by Chaos.. and all of them had been given signs by the Tikal of the past. As he thought about this, the entire group was whisked from New Knothole.. thrown somewhere foreign. Into the middle of a ruined city. Echidnas were running everywhere.   
"Where are we?" Tails asked. Everyone shook their heads in confusion. Terrified echidnas swarmed around, and then a shape rose up in the center.. a huge dragon, formed from liquid. Perfect Chaos. It threw back its head and roared... then the group was taken to another scene.. in the middle of a desolate frozen wasteland.. the sky was filled with thunder clouds, and also visible was the huge Sky Sanctuary machine, surrounded by fog. Echidnas frantically attacked it, trying to shut it down before it reached the final phase... then they were taken away one more time... into the middle of a warzone! Fighter spacecraft zipped throughout the atmosphere, and echidna warriors attempted to fight back. Then something rose up, blocking much of the sky. The echidnas stopped fighting, and shivered in fear. It appeared to be a huge mothership of some kind. It began to whirr, and a circle on the underside opened up, revealing a bright blue glow. The sound of the ship became unbearable, as did the shouts of the echidna armies... then the entire place turned bright blue for a split second... and they were all gone. No echidnas, no spaceships.. piercing silence. Nothing remained except the weapons the army was carrying.. strewn on the ground, and the chirping of crickets. Then a soft voice spoke up.. the voice of Tikal of the past.   
"These were the three tests." she announced. "The rampage of Chaos in the first, the onslaught of Sky Sanctuary in the second, and the kidnapping of the generations in the third. We as a race failed the tests.. now they have returned in your time, at the fall of the millennium. You have passed two tests.. now you must pass the third. Don't let Chaos win.. pass your final test."   
And, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. They were all back in the meeting hut of New Knothole. There was a long silence as everybody looked about themselves.   
"Whew.." Streak exhaled. "That's it, I need to lie down for a while, guys."   
"No time.." Knuckles replied, shaking his head. "If that wasn't a sign, I don't know what is. The Tikal of the past wants us to win this.. and so do I. Originally, there were six servers and a controller holding the Chaos Emeralds.. and now, we have all been selected and brought here to hold them again. Me, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Streak, Big, and the robot. There are seven."   
"Yeah, very observant, spiney.." Streak commented. "I just hope you know what you are doing!" 

CHAPTER SIX: END OF THE MILLENNIUM 

Robotnik, fury in his eyes, gripped the steering wheel with sweaty hands. He was shaking all over as he drove through the forest, mowing down small shrubs and avoiding large trees. A colission with one would be fatal.. with the humungous nuclear warhead strapped to the roof and all. "They've brought down Ivo Robotnik.." he grumbled to himself. "Ivo Robotnik doesn't go down unless he pulls this whole frigging place down with him. I'll show them what an egg-man can do." 

Sonic looked at the large grey Chaos Emerald. "Why do I have to be the 'controller', Knux?" he asked.   
"SOMEBODY has to do it!" Knux replied. "We drew straws on this fair and square, Sonic, don't try and back out now!"   
Sonic sighed and stepped into the forest clearing. He was unprepared for what he saw.. Station Square quite literally looked as if a bomb had hit it. He was creeped out by the fact it was the same city he had been walking around in only recently.. And he could hear the roars of Chaos within.   
"What does he want?" Sonic asked, angry. "He turned on Robotnik, smashed up Station Square.. where will he stop?"   
"I don't think he intends to.." Amy replied. "He's just going to keep destroying..."   
"It's time to put a stop to this..." Sonic announced. "Once and for all."   
...   
"CHAOS!" Sonic screamed from atop a skyscraper. His friends all around him, each held a Chaos Emerald.   
The huge beast turned it's quivering dragon's head... its eyes were the only solid things in the beast, even the bones had dissolved. The monster was now just an extension of the flood which ran through the city. Sonic all at once saw why the ancient echidnas feared snakes. Chaos was one. An eel, to be more precise.. some kind of slimey, legless monster from the deep.   
"What the heck is this thing?" Sonic found himself asking. "Is it organic? Is it alien? Is it a demon? A god?"   
"YOU HAVE RETURNED TO CHAOS, LITTLE WORM!" Chaos' booming voice broke his ponderings. "You are NOTHING but a parasitic insect feeding off this doomed planet!"   
"You think so?" Sonic shouted back. "Well this insect fights BACK! NOW!"   
At his call, his friends spread in a circle around him, each holding an emerald high in the air. The emeralds immediately regained their glow, and began to spark and glitter. Chaos let out a monsterous roar.   
"CHAOS SHALL NOT BE FOOLED AGAIN!" the beast screamed... a tentacle came out of nowhere and collided hard with the building. The construction crumbled, bringing the seven Mobians down with it. 

Gamma managed to grab Streak and Amy and activate his rocket pack, Tails grabbed onto Sonic and Knuckles and flew to safety, and Big landed in the water below with a loud plop.   
"BIG!!" Streak screamed, sparks flying off his ears in a random fashion. The large cat in the river below managed to winch himself to safety, just as Chaos' head melted into the city.   
"TRY IT AGAIN!" Sonic screamed. "WE HAVE TO DO THIS! TRY AND FORM A CIRCLE AROUND ME!"   
Everybody gathered themselves into a rather shoddy ellipse and raised the emeralds again. Once again, the gems crackled to life. But something else was cracking.. the pavement beneath their feet. They stumbled and fell, there was an explosion, and the enormous head of Chaos burst out of the ground from underneath them, mouth wide open... swallowing all seven characters with one gulp. Sonic gripped the grey Chaos Emerald in one hand, and struggled to tred water as he was raised higher and higher into the sky, inside the Chaos monster. But he couldn't swim, he was too scared.. he hated water.. and this was worse than water. This was the image of death.. the bringer of havoc.. the self-proclaimed God of Destruction. This was the Perfect Chaos. And nobody can swim in Perfect Chaos. 

In the blink of an eye, Sonic was rushing in one direction. E-102 Gamma had blown a gaping hole in the monster's skin, and the liquid was rushing out in a fountain, taking Chaos' victims with it. Sonic cascaded down the huge Chaos waterfall, and landed on the pavement. Little water droplets with eyes ran away to avoid the falling hedgehog.. they were everywhere, running up and down the city, or what was left of it. Sonic, confused and wounded, tried to get up, but a piece of debris knocked him from behind, and he fell into a deep dark crevice... the sewer.   
When he shook some sense into himself, he tried to get up again, this time successfully. He looked about himself.. the sewers under the city were as destroyed as the rest of Station Square. Sunlight streamed in every so often. It seemed to go forever in both directions.   
He picked up the grey emerald, just as he heard a noise from one end of the sewer. Like a wave at the ocean, only much more intense. It was getting louder... Chaos was filling the sewer.   
"It wants to kill me.." Sonic realised, even though he had known that ever since the battle with Chaos Zero. Such a short, stumpy, egotistical little creature it was then... and now it had consumed the whole of the Master Emerald, and it was a huge, catastrophic, egotistical nightmare! Sonic turned to the opposite path than that of the approaching noise, and began to run. His speed increased as he ran, but still the Chaos liquid, travelling much faster than water, burst from every crevice and poured after him. He could hear the deafening wave behind him.. he could even feel it dripping on his neck and the droplets slithering around like slugs.. every tiny inch of Chaos was alive, as if it were a colony of minute insignificant bugs, joined to create the biggest threat in Mobius history. For the first time in years, Sonic reached the speed of sound. He knew, because he could feel his skin growing red-hot.. his body seemed to elongate, and he could no longer hear the waves behind him. Their booming sound was no longer fast enough to reach his ears. He was Sonic the Hedgehog.   
"I don't look back, I don't need to..." he shouted, the sound of his voice being left behind him before it could reach his own ears. "Time won't wait, and I got so much to do!"   
He busted out of the sewer pipe, and continued to travel through the air as if there was still ground under his feet. But eventually gravity set in, his feet no longer working against it, and he began to slow down and fall.. his skin feeling as if it was badly sunburned. 

Robotnik rounded a bend, and then slammed on the breaks. He could see Station Square in the distance.   
"Perfect.." he snarled. "I take out Chaos, I take out Station Square, I take out New Knothole, I take out Sonic, and all in one blow! I am going out with one HELL of a bang this day..." 

"Failed?" Sally asked.   
"Miserably." Sonic replied. Bruised, with his skin looking purple with a tinge of red, the hedgehog looked at all the sad faces around him. Even that mysterious Gamma robot, who had no face, looked melancholy. "He expects it this time." Knuckles announced. "He knew that the Chaos Emeralds are the only way to take him down.. so this time he was ready. He's too powerful."   
"Duh, we need a distraction!" Big declared. Everybody slowly turned their heads towards him. "What did you say?" Sonic asked.   
"A... distraction?" Big said, shrugging.   
"Of course!" Sonic shouted. "OF COURSE!! Big is a genius!"   
"I am?" Big asked.   
"Hold on, hold on, how are we going to distract Chaos?" Knuckles asked. "We really need to think this through."   
"Well, he's liquid, so shooting and stuff won't work.." Tails said.   
"Properties of liquids.." Amy murmured. "They can usually be converted to a gas or a solid with temperature change.."   
"Hey, we got a chemist over here!" Sonic announced, smiling. Amy just grinned back.   
"Yeah.." Streak replied. "Couldn't we evaporate Chaos? He couldn't attack us like that, we could just suck him up!"   
"Yeah, heat the Perfect Chaos to boiling point.. the only problem would be finding a magnifying glass bigger than my island." Knuckles replied, sarcastically.   
"Just a suggestion!" Streak said defensively.   
"Well, what's the alternative?" Sonic asked. "Freezing him!"   
"Probability is even less plausible." Gamma droned. "We do not have access to any materials suitable to remove heat from such a large subject."   
"Yeah, and freezing is a slow process." Amy added. "Even if we did find a way, Chaos would attack us before he even slowed down."   
"So we need something big enough to freeze him, that's also quick?" Tails asked.   
Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other. They had both simultaniously thought of the same thing.   
"Quick.." Knuckles began.   
"Freeze.." Sonic concluded.   
"Quicksleet." they said in unison.   
"Do you still have Robotnik's remote control?" Sonic asked. "Never left my island." Knuckles replied. "Think it will work?" Amy raised an eyebrow. "Have I missed something?" she asked. Sonic turned to her, smiling a victorious smile. "Sky Sanctuary." he said. 

Knuckles looked apon the giant floating machine.. it was hovering just above his island. He held a large remote control in his gloved hand. "Are we sure we want to do this?" he asked. "This machine has been activated three times - the first time it almost obliterated a civilization, the next time it almost destroyed Mobius, and the third time it wiped out Knothole and half of Robotropolis. Nothing good has ever actually come out of it."   
"What choice do we have?" Amy asked. "If this thing does what you say it does, then it's exactly what we need... perhaps the ONLY thing that will work."   
"How do we get the quicksleet to just freeze Chaos, and not the whole planet again?" Tails inquired.   
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Sonic replied. "Let's get this thing to Station Square."   
Knuckles nodded, and punched something into the remote control. A generator on top of Sky Sanctuary, with a worn motif of Robotnik's face printed on it, started up. The blocks and discs floating around began to orbit the main pole very slowly, and the machine began to move. 

"CHAOS!" Robotnik shouted, standing on the dry remains of a building. Chaos, the enormous dragon, stared down at him.   
"YOU HAVE DEFIED YOUR MASTER, STUPID BEAST!" Robotnik called. "NOW YOU WILL BE DESTROYED AT ALL COSTS!"   
"You are a fool, Ivo Robotnik!" Chaos boomed. "Chaos is the perfect organism! Chaos was created never to be destroyed! You are but an insignificant Mobian insect! Chaos was programmed to destroy YOU, and NOT any other way around! CHAOS WILL DESTROY, AND CHAOS WILL NOT BE DESTROYED!"   
"You will be defeated, Chaos.." Robotnik insisted, rage and insanity in his eyes. "You and everyone who opposed me in life! Think of it as a self-destruction mechanism.." He shot his arms into the air. "THE FINAL LEGACY OF IVO JULIAN ROBOTNIK!"   
"How's it goin', ya big DRIP?" somebody shouted from the top of a huge building. Chaos and Robotnik looked up to see Sonic standing there! "You are persistant, infidel!" Chaos snarled. "It is pointless to imagine that you can defeat the Perfect Chaos!"   
"Maybe I can't, Chaos!" Sonic replied. "But the question is, can YOU defeat the Perfect Hedgehog?"   
As he spoke, the huge Sky Sanctuary machine drifted into the city behind him, out from the shadows of the crumbled buildings.   
"Chaos is the ULTIMATE!" Chaos shouted. "CHAOS IS THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION!! YOU WILL FALL TO YOUR KNEES BEFORE YOUR GOD, AND PREPARE FOR YOUR DEATH!!"   
"I think omnipotence might be a bit of a high goal for you right now, Chaos.." Sonic admitted. "You say you're a god, but to me, you're all wet!" With that, the hedgehog blasted into the air. Chaos drew a deap breath, then exploded with an incredible stream of water which knocked down buildings in its path. But Sonic skillfully evaded the attack, and scrambled to the top of a leaning skyscraper. "IS THAT ALL YOU CAN DO, BUBBLES?" He shouted. Chaos' head re-formed, turned, and drew back for another attack. But Sonic dodged again, hopping from building to building. Chaos whipped with his tentacles, but Sonic was simply too quick. When Chaos threw out more water blasts, Sonic jumped, skipped and leapt, landing right on top of Sky Sanctuary, which was whirring through the city. Chaos burst out from underneath in a blinding rage, mouth wide open. Sonic wasn't expecting the attack, so he jumped into the air to avoid being swallowed.. and he was caught by something! He looked up to see Tails, with a tight hold on his wrists, flying him to safety!   
"Great catch, little bro!" Sonic announced happily. Tails just smiled. Knuckles, atop a nearby building, was watching Chaos. The monster had swallowed Sky Sanctuary completely, and was looking around for the hedgehog who barely escaped his wrath.   
"CHECKMATE, CHAOS!" Knuckles yelled. He extended a finger, and pounded a button on the remote control.   
Chaos snapped to attention when he sensed the churning inside him. The liquid in his interior was being swirled like it was in a blender. The machine he swallowed... the blocks and discs in orbit around it has begun to spin furiously. The monster looked at Sonic threateningly. "CHAOS IS INVINCIBLE!!" he screamed. But then the machine barfed something, and the monster howled in pain. There was a cracking sound as the middle and bottom of Chaos instantly turned to ice. The ice spread downwards, freezing the flood which engulfed the city.. it spread outward until the city looked like a giant skating rink. Chaos' head exploded into about fifty smaller versions of itself.. a bunch of panicing, squirming, writhing eels, screeching at an almost ear-piercing level. When the eels came together again into one big head, it was the only part of the monster that remained liquid. Chaos threw back his head into a huge roar, and the ice engulfed him completely.. last of all freezing the beast's haunting yellow eyes which were the expression of fear.   
And as all this happened, seven characters stood apon the upper-most building of the city, one of the only ones that remained standing.   
"This is for trying to destroy the world, Chaos! Your evil will be locked away forever!" Tails the Fox announced. He shot up his hand, which contained a mouve Chaos Emerald. It began to glow.   
"My island crashed because you swallowed the Master Emerald! As guardian, it is my DUTY to right what you have done!" Knuckles the Echidna shouted, throwing his arm up. It held a green Chaos Emerald.   
"You destroyed my home! The whole of Station Square is obliterated, thanks to you! You must be stopped!" Amy Rose yelled, throwing her hand up with a light blue Chaos Emerald.   
"You hurt my Froggy! And you tried to drown him! I'll never let you harm anyone again!" Big the Cat announced, throwing up his hand.. he held a dark blue Chaos Emerald.   
"This electric shock ability was my one form of self-defence, and a really neat party trick! But you ruined it! So here's my present to you!" Streak the Cat yelled, raising an orange Chaos Emerald into the air.   
"You deleted Commander Packbell, Chaos.. he was my father. I must avenge his destruction." Gamma droned, holding high a Red Chaos Emerald.   
"HEAR ME, CHAOS!" Sonic shouted. "You have upset Sonic the Hedgehog, and everybody he cares about! You may be big, you may be scary, but NOBODY goes against a Sonic Boom without being blown away!"   
Sonic threw up his arms, clutching the grey Chaos Emerald... the controller. All seven emeralds began to glow brightly, sparking and jolting... then they left the clutches of those who were holding them.. the emeralds flew straight upward, into the air, spinning in a huge ring. Faster and faster... then there was an explosion, as a huge vortex opened in the space between them. It swirled and rippled... and the frozen body of Chaos began to stir... began to crack. Pieces broke off the mass, from all over the city, and began to float towards the nexus.. the chunks became bigger as the portal increased in power. The portal grew, and more and more pieces of Chaos broke away.. and, at last, it was all down to the enormous head of the monster, twisted into a terrifying silent roar, frozen in time. The entire mass cracked and splintered, and something busted out from its interior.. something broke out of the ice as the entire mass was pulled into the emerald vortex... it was the original state of Chaos, Chaos Zero. The short humanoid creature floated slowly upwards toward the portal, chunks of ice dodging it and sploshing into it like an asteroid storm. Chaos morphed his claws into paddles and tried to swim through the air.. to avoid his fate. Then he noticed Sonic standing there, in the center of the circle, staring up at him. The monster screamed and threw one limb into a tentacle. The sqirming tentacle wrapped around Sonic's waist, to the hedgehog's surprise, and pulled him into the sky with Chaos.   
"You will come with Chaos, yes?" Chaos chuckled. Big the Cat threw forth his fishing rod, the lure tangling around Sonic's ankle. They engaged in a tug-of war with the hedgehog, Chaos' body becoming a long, thin stream as the chaos liquid was unable to fight the pull of the Chaos Emeralds. Then the monster loosened and faltered its grip on Sonic, allowing the hedgehog to be winched to safety.   
The monster, yellow ellipse-eyes bulging, screamed as it entered the vortex as a thin stream of liquid. It spun around in the air like a whirlpool before being sucked inside.   
"CHAOS...... WILL....... RETURN!" he screamed... his head was pulled inside the nexus with a plop, and the Chaos Emeralds came together, closing the doorway.. trapping Chaos inside them once again. They crushed tightly together, and then, with an explosion that almost deafened the city, they blew apart.. each emerald flying in a different direction and disappearing over the horizon, nobody knowing where on Mobius they fell. Then everything went silent.   
"Chaos won't return.." Sonic announced. "Not if those emeralds never come together again. They are gone now.. I'm sick of the sight of them." Everybody agreed, and Knuckles looked down at the ground. The Master Emerald, in one piece, just as it used to be, sat on the street. Knuckles grinned. His quest was complete.   
"WELL DONE, FREEDOM FIGHTERS!" came a voice. Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, Streak, Big and Gamma turned around to find themselves facing Doctor Robotnik.   
"Robotnik!" Sonic stammered.   
"Hello, Sonic!" Robotnik acknowledged. "My rival from the beginning of time! And Tails.. the little mutant fox, whose parents I took great delight in eliminating during the Great War!"   
Tails frowned and stepped foward.. Sonic grabbed one of his tails to hold him in place.   
"Knuckles!" Robotnik continued "The small-minded echidna that I've always been able to trick into doing my bidding.. Amy, Sonic's old girlfriend who's come back to haunt me... Streak and Big, I really don't know much about you, save for you being a couple of feline dunderheads who will achieve nothing in life. And Gamma... I'm disappointed in you, Gamma, I really am."   
"Do not be, Robotnik.. I act only for what is right." Gamma replied, saluting.   
"Which is exactly the problem.." Robotnik snarled. "You are faulty, Gamma, and it has led you to join these idiots! But no matter, you will get what you deserve very soon."   
"It's over, Robotnik." Sonic announced. "You're ruined. We won."   
"Indeed I am ruined, Sonic!" Robotnik agreed. "But do not jump to conclusions.. You have not won. _I_ have won, hedgehog." The doctor twisted his mostache, grinning.   
"I think your facts are wrong, just a little bit.." Sonic told him.   
"Oh, you think so?" Robotnik asked. "I advise you to look up, Sonic." Sonic slowly moved his eyes to the sky, as something blotted out the sun. He gasped. Robotnik, noticing the shadow, grinned. "I see it is on time!" he announced. "Unstoppable, Sonic... It's a nuclear missile! And it's heading.. straight.. towards.. this.. very.. building!"   
"How are you going to escape it, egg-man?" Sonic inquired.   
"Oh! I want to make sure PERSONALLY that it hits!" Robotnik replied. "My own life is in ruins anyway, so it is a fit sacrifice to make if it means wiping out you seven, the rest of the Freedom Fighters and Station Square! Brings meaning to the phrase 'you'll never take me alive!'" Sonic gulped, as he stared at the missile, rocketing through the air. "We.. can't escape it!" he admitted, fearfully.   
The robot E-102 Gamma stared at the other six characters, who were scared witless. Tails was at the point of crying.. then the robot turned to Robotnik, who was cackling evilly. Then his thoughts turned to birds.. his family, his friends.. not just birds, but every other animal. They would all perish. They should be free. Gamma knew immediately what he must do.   
"It has been an honor to share this adventure with you all." he announced. "You tought me of love.. of emotions. Especially you, Amy Rose. You will always have a place inside my heart. A metal heart in a metal body."   
Then the robot activated its jetpack. He blasted into the sky.   
"What's he doing?" Amy asked fearfully.   
"I... don't know!" Knuckles replied, cocking his head to the side.   
"Oh my gosh! That robot's gonna smack right into the missile!" Streak announced.   
"GAMMA!" Amy screamed. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Gamma looked down at her, then up at his target. "I know now why you cry." he announced. "This is the final target.. my robotic fighting skills have worked up to this moment. All shall be free.   
And he looked at slides on his hard drive.. images from his short life. Of birds.. of Amy.. of freedom. He was vaguely aware of errors flashing up briefly as his mainframe was ripped to pieces by the small radioactive holocaust high in the sky. He was at peace. he had done the ultimate good deed. 

Back on the ground, Amy was crying amidst the explosion which could be heard in the air. She chose not to watch what became of her robot friend. He had made the ultimate sacrifice for Mobian-kind.   
Robotnik snarled and cursed, stomping his feet on the ground. Then he fell silent with a short sigh.   
"So this is it, Sonic." he admitted. "When I was created, ironically by you yourself, I had nothing. You had nothing. It was just you, and me. Then we went our seperate ways.. I created the greatest empire on Mobius, and you joined the revolt against it. But now, we have nothing again. It's ended just how it started."   
"It's been a blast, Ivo." Sonic replied. "But you should have known that evil doesn't pay. Somebody as intelligent as you should have worked that out."   
"If I had the chance to do it all again, I would." Robotnik announced with a grin.   
"I have a feeling that your chance has gone." replied Sonic. 

EPILOGUE: 

CRACK, CRACK, CRACK.   
The sound of the judge's gavel echoed through the courtroom.   
"Professor Ivo Julian Robotnik." the Judge called.   
"Just 'doctor' will be fine, your honor." Robotnik replied.   
"Doctor.." the judge acknowledged. "You have quite a case, here! You are charged, Robotnik, with seven hundred thousand documented cases of murder of the first degree, COUNTLESS undocumented cases, several counts of illegal production of artificial intelligence, complete defience of the government, including the MURDER of His Magesty King Acorn and his wife the Queen, and the attempted GENOCIDE of the entire population of this planet. Before you plead, doctor, might I ALSO remind you that the evidence against you is overwhelming, there are MILLIONS of witnesses, INCLUDING myself and every member of the jury, and the only reason you are here at ALL is due to the Mobian Legislation that you must be trialled! Now, Doctor Robotnik... how do you plead?"   
Robotnik looked around the courtroom.. he was not the slightest bit sorry about any of the charges laid on him. He turned back to the judge and smirked.   
"Guilty as sin." he announced.   
"Well, that finishes it." the judge said, banging his gavel on the bench. "Robotnik, your crimes outweigh even the death penalty. I have studied my law books, and, adding up everything you have done into a single sentance, I'm going to have to commit you to forty thousand years banishment in the Crux Desert. I can assure you, doctor, that is quite significantly longer than you will be alive. Congratulations, you are officially the biggest criminal in the recorded history of Mobius."   
"And I don't regret a thing." Robotnik added. The police arrived, and he was carted away... 

Knuckles stared at the Master Emerald, as the Floating Islang lifted into the sky. The emerald now sat on an altar above ground.. modelled after the altar he had seen in his dreams, housing the Havoc Gem.   
He had his own private celebration.. he had made peace with Sonic and everybody once again. His island was safe from at least one threat. He sang to himself.   
"As hard as nails, it ain't hard to tell, I break 'em down whether they're solid or frail, unlike the rest, I'm independant, it's my first breath, First Test, feel the right, then the worst's left."   
"First Test." he repeated. "It's over. Tikal would be proud." 

The Freedom Fighters celebrated that night. They held a massive party.. Stringybark, Station Square and New Knothole, the three remaining Freedom Fighter bands. They partied well into the night. They were finally free. Amy Rose held a paper plate stocked with food. She mixed the vegetables around with her fork. "This is Sonic.." she announced, moving a piece of parsley to the middle of her plate. She put six peas around him, symbolizing the other members of the circle.   
"Oh great, I remind her of parsley!" Sonic joked.   
Sagittarius stared at the stars. "You beat it." he announced. "The three tests came around again, and you beat them all! Now peace rules again! Like I always said, 'Freedom will be waiting when serenity is restored!'"   
"Did you ever actually say that?" Sonic asked with a laugh.   
"Maybe not, but it sounded good!" Sage replied, grinning.   
Sally laughed and sighed. "Oh Sonic... this is our last night as Freedom Fighters!" she announced. "There is no freedom left to fight for! We're free at last, and I can reclaim my place as ruler of my people... and make sure nothing like this ever happens again!"   
"Sure thing, Sal, sure thing." Sonic replied. "You'll be the best ruler this country's ever had."   
"Thanks Sonic." Sally replied with a smile. "And thanks for sticking by me."   
"No prob... 'twas a worthy cause."   
And the Freedom Fighters danced by the moonlight until morning. All was well once again.   
Can't hold on much longer, but I'll never let go; I know it's a one way track, can you tell me how long it will last? I'm not gonna think this way, nor will I count on others; Close my eyes and feel it burn, now I see what I've got to do.   
Open your heart.   
It's gonna be alright. 

FIN' 

"And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, the deciever of the whole world - he was thrown down, and his angels were thrown down with him. - Revelation 12:9" 

SERIES TWO CHRONOLOGY:   
1. The New Girl   
2. Dragon the Chain   
3. Never Say Nemesis   
4. When a Hedgehog Meets a Fox   
5. Just Your Imagination   
6. Shred   
7. The Death Machine   
8. Metal Made Flesh   
9. Power Corrupts   
10. Halfway Across the Galaxy   
11. Two For One   
12. Prologue to an Adventure   
13. Adventure

   [1]: http://www.stas.net/1/shax/Virtualden.html
   [2]: mailto:Shaxr@angelfire.com



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